MARTYRS 



IN ALL 



K\'\\^\\vW.^N> 



iifi 




Copyright ]J^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



1 



MARTYPS IN ALL AGES 
A PEP5ECUTED PEOPLE 



"They were Stoned, they were sawm asunder, 
were tempted, were slain with the sword: they 
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being 
deftitute, atfliifted, tormented." Heb. 11:37. 



m 



COMPILED BY 

P. L. POTTER 



Metropolitan Church 
Association, Publishers, 

Foontala Sprini: Hoosc» 

WAUKESHA, - • WISCONSIN. 

CopyiiQ^ted, 1907, By The Metropolitan Church Assodation. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two GoDies Received 

SEP 23 1907 

^Copyrufht Entry 
CLASS ^ XXc.^No. 

COPY Ig. 



A) 



4 



PREFACE. 



The following pages contain commemorative records of 
what God's people have suffered for the sake of tjje gospel. 
It is not our purpose to present a history of the martyrs, 
nor* a biography of those whose lives were suJSiciently im- 
portant to make them worthy of having their usefulness 
perpetuated in that way; but omitting even the names of 
many who are deserving and who were justly given place in 
ancient martyrologies, we have endeavored to give our 
readers a brief review of martyrs of all ages, to stimulate 
them in their Christian growth and missionary labors; be- 
lieving that by the example of Christian heroism herein de- 
picted, thousands of hearts will be stirred to renewed zeal 
for God and to greater diligence in saving the lost who are 
hurrying on to a Hell where all the murderers of God's fioly 
people, and where all the wicked of all the ages are to^be 
confined with the devil and his angels forever and forever. 
May God use the book to strengthen His army both in num- 
bers and might, is our prayer. 

THE PUBLISHERS. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Chapter I. Disciples of Christ to the Time of the 

Reformation 9 

Chapter II. Persecutions of the Reformation 49 

Chapter III. Martyrs of Scotland — The Reign of 

Mary — The Huguenots 93 

Chapter IV. Martyrs of the Modern Inquisition 122 

Chapter V. Since the Inquisition 175 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. / 

1. Three Bishops: Simeon, Phocas, Ignatius.,,...., 18 

2. A Street Scene 28 

3. Lawrence , . . , , , , . , , 36 

4. Theodoret, a Deacon . , , , 46 

5. Lord Cobham , ,,,...,...,.., 50 

6. John Hubs 52 

7. Girolamo (Jerome) Savonarola 58 

8. Martin Luther 62 

9. John Lambert 72 

10. Executions in Holland 76 

11. Executions in Calabria 86 

12. Tyndale Strangled 92 

13. Burned in Pitch Barrel 104 

14. Ridley and Latimer 106 

15. Three Women of Guernsey 108 

16. Night of St. Bartholomew 112 

17. Morning After St. Bartholomew 114 

18. Huguenots Suffering Martyrdom 120 

19. Inquisition in Session 122 

20. Torture by Pulley 128 

2L Torture by Water 130 

22. Torture by Fire 138 

23. Executions in Early Centuries 150 

24. George Fox 176 

25. A Protestafit's Corpse Degraded 196 

26. Martyrdom in Germany 210 

27. Smithfield: Reign of Mary 218 

28. In the Seventeenth Century 228 

29. Eulalia: A Maiden of the Fourth Century 236 

30. Inquisition in Holland 242 

31. A Young Martyr 256 

The above illustrations were drawn especially for this book, by 
Charles W. Bosser, of Chicago, Illinois. 



INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 



God's people are a persecuted people. Every century 
has had persons who have "resisted unto blood, striving 
against sin," and the history of every age proves that "all 
who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecu- 
tion/' 

The only trouble between the first christian martyr and 
the man who slew him was this, "Abel offered unto God a 
more excellent sacrifice than Cain/' Abel was a shepherd 
and offered "the firstlings of his flock and of the fat there- 
of (Gen. 4:4), "by faith" (Heb. 11:4), and God testified 
of his gifts and gave him the witness, and his testimony 
has never been silenced. He had a short life, but a very 
long influence. It was of him that God said, "He being 
dead yet speaketh." Cain did not bring the offering that 
God required and God had to reprove him; but sad to 
relate, instead of repenting, he turned away and slew his 
brother. Failure to heed God's voice means sin against 
one's self and enmity toward God and His people. 

The Old Testament tells of many other martyrs : Ahime- 
lech and his fellow priests (1 Sam. 22: 16-19), Urijah, 
who was slain by Jehoiakim, king of Judah, B^ C. 710 
(Jer. 26:23), and many more prophets and saints of Old 
Testament times (1 Kings 18:14; 19:10); also, then as 
now, there were persecutions that were not unto death, yet 
as hard as death to meet, as in the case of Joseph, Daniel, 
Jeremiah, and others. The human heart has not changed 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 

since the murder of Abel, and it cannot be changed but by 
the blood of Christ. There is something in every uncon- 
verted person that opposes holiness, and in some degree, 
every person is either persecuted for righteousness' sake or 
is persecuting others. May God grant to every reader 
such an experience that he will be found in the former 
class when Jesus comes. 

Before Jesus went away He said, "Behold, I send imto 
you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of 
them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye 
scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city 
to city.'' Matt. 23:34. Shortly after these words were 
spoken, the disciples experienced the literal fulfillment of 
the prophecy and suffered even unto death at the hands of 
the Jews who had already shed much righteous blood. 

John, in his wonderful vision on the lonely isle of Pat- 
mos, saw "souls of them that were slain for the word of 
God, and for the testimony which they held ♦ ♦ ♦ and 
white robes were given unto every one of them; and it 
was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little 
season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, 
that should be killed ae they were, should be fulfilled." 
Eev. 6: 9, 11. These were the holy martyrs. Again he 
saw martyrs upon thrones (Rev. 20: 4). A crown of life 
is promised to those who are faithful unto death (Rev. 
2 : 10). We do not know just what the crown is, but it is 
something worthy of God. The one who promised the 
crown said, "Whosoever will save hie life shall lose it : and 
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 
Matt. 16 : 25. Why should a person hesitate about laying 
down his life for Jesus if he could get his life back again 
and with it a crown? 



8 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

The Lord say& in regard to "the reproach of men," that 
it i» one of the things that we are not to fear. He says of 
the things that we shall suffer, "Fear not," and why need 
we fear? He is able to deliver today as He delivered 
Daniel, and if He should permit you or me to be one of 
His faithful martyrs, such a death accepted in the Spirit 
would be the shortest route to eternal glory and honor 
with Jesus at the right hand of God. 



Martyrs In All Ages or 
A Persecuted People 



#^^^^^^^^^^^ 



CHAPTEE I 

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST TO THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION 

John the Baptist, Stephen, James the Great, Antipas, 
Philip, Matthew, James the Le&s or James the Just, Mat- 
thias, Andrew, Mark, Peter, Paul, Jude, Bartholomew, 
Thomas, Luke, Simon the Canaanite, John the Evan- 
gelist, Barnabas, Clement, From the times of the Apostles 
to the Eeformation, Simeon, Phocas, Ignatius, Zenon and 
Some Ten Thousand Others, Faustines and Jobita, Justin 
Martyr, Early Martyrdoms in Asia and France, Germani- 
cus, Polycarp, Felicitas and Her Seven Children, Martyrs 
of Lyons and Vienne, Vetius Epagathus, Alexander, Vin- 
centius, Eusebius, Peregrinus, Potentanus, Julius, Cecelia, 
Husband and Brother, Quinta, Apolinia, Julian, Lawrence, 
The Trail not Lost, Eulalia, Agnes, Vengeance from Qod, 
Persecutions in Persia, Acepsimus and Athalasf, Theo- 
doret, Bademus. 

JOHN THE BAPTIST 

"As it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my 
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths etraight/' 
Mark 1:3. 



10 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

John the Baptist early learned to know the rugged way. 
He got his training in the wilderness where he fed on 
locusts and wild honey and clothed his body in a garment 
of camel's hair, yet, Jesus testified in regard to this won- 
derful minister that he was the greatest man who had ever 
been born; but he was destined to die in reproach. Jesus 
said that of all men that had been born, there was none 
greater. Scores of people listened to his gospel and became 
his disciples, but behold a good-for-nothing dancing girl 
gets him off the earth. When he found the king laden 
with sins he rebuked him to his face, and as a result, was 
imprisoned by order of Herod, in the castle of Machaerus. 
Shortly afterward Herodias, the unlawful wife of the king, 
— ^the wicked woman for whose sake he had John the Bap- 
tist in prison, had his murder accomplished in A. D. 31 
or 32, and thus his short ministry ended. If John the 
Baptist had used wisdom (?) he might have saved his life 
— and lo&t his soul. We notice that when some of his 
disciples, now followers of Jesus, who were near the sor- 
rowful scene of his execution and buried his body, "went 
and told Jesus,'' He did not hold up John the Baptist's 
death as a warning to them and tell them to be more pru- 
dent. 

Has there not always been a time when kings have been 
on the throne and the whole world as it were on their 
side ? There has been no change in that respect and Holy 
Ghost religion has not changed in the ages that have 
gone by. People used to suffer persecution, and everyone 
today who gets God's good religion will have to suffer for it. 
We do not believe that the world is better than it was when 
John the Baptist had to look the king in the two eyes and 
tell him of his sinsw We believe that if a man were to walk 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. ll 

up and tell the whole truth to the Czar of Eussia, he could 
not safely get out of that country, without having a hard 
time. You could not go in today and tell any of the kings 
their sins without pretty nearly getting your head taken 
oflf. If you get the Holy Ghost it will almost finish you. 

STEPHEN 

The circumstances attending the trial and death of 
Stephen, a man "full of faith and power,'' who "did great 
wonders and miracles among the people," are familiar to 
every Bible student. Being brought before the high priest 
and requested to answer to the charge of blasphemy, he 
began by narrating Bible history from the time of Abra- 
ham down, and proceeded without interruption until he 
suddenly turned the course of his remarks, as every true 
prophet will do, to the sins of his congregation, and charged 
them with having resisted the Holy Ghost and murdered 
Jesus. It would seem that all Heaven moved down a little 
nearer to listen to the sermon, for Stephen at once, in a 
vision beheld the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the 
right hand of God, and the glory of the vision seemed to 
cause him to lose sight of his defense and he gave his tes- 
timony, which &o enraged the witnesses that they refused 
to listen to him further, but cried aloud and "stopped 
their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast 
him out of the city, and stoned him : * * Stephen, call- 
ing upon God, and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, 
lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said 
this, he fell asleep." Oh, what a history of disgraceful 
tumult, of sin and suffering and triumph, the Holy Ghost 
packs into the last five verses of the seventti chapter of the 
book of Acts! 



12 MARTYRS IN ALL AGE3. 

JAMES THE GREAT 

Great persecutions arose against the church at Jerusalem 
immediately after the murder of Stephen, and one writer 
says that two thousand christians suffered martyrdom. 
Among the number, some years later, was James, the son 
of Zebedee, the apostle who with Peter and John was with 
Jesus when he raised Jairus' daughter, and also with Him 
at the transfiguration. He was the first of the apostles to 
be martyred. Herod began a persecution of the christians 
and passed immediate sentence upon James. The account 
is given in the book of Acts in one sentence; but other 
primitive writers give another interesting account which 
we will not overlook; that, as he was led to the execution- 
er's block, his accuser was brought to repentance by the 
Christ-like constancy that he showed at the time of his 
trial, and that he fell down at the feet of James, begged 
his pardon for speaking against him, and publicly pro- 
fessed to be a christian. So James did not die alone ; both 
were beheaded at the same time. Thus the great James 
tasted the cup that he had so long since told Jesus he was 
ready to drink. 

ANTIPAS 

When Jesus told John what to write to the church in 
Pergamos, He mentioned Antipas, speaking of him as His 
"faithful martyr.'^ Antipas is said to have been one of the 
first disciples of Jesus and he bore the reproach of Christ 
even to death, but any bad names given him by the people 
of his day are forgotten long centuries ago and all we have 
to record now is the good name given to him by the 
Lord who calls him, "My martyr, my faithful one." The 



A PEKSEOUTED PEOPLE. 13 

reference is supposed to be to Antipas, the bishop of Per- 
gamos, who was put to death in a tumult by heathen 
priests by being placed in a red-hot iron image of a bull. 

PHILIP 

Toward the close of the labors of Philip, God gave 
him a great revival in Phrygia, and this stirred the devil, 
who thought that he had the people of that place so de- 
voted to idolatry that they would never know the true God. 
The officers of the city seized upon Philip and had him 
imprisoned and scourged, and then bound and hanged 
against a pillar, or crucified His body is said to have been 
taken by Bartholomew and a sister of Philip and burned. 

MATTHEW 

Matthew heard the call of Jesus when he had wealth 
and good employment, and left all to follow Him. He was 
martyred in Ethiopia. The general opinion is that he was 
slain with a halberd, though the exact manner of his death 
is not absolutely known. He might have kept his gold, he 
might have spurned the call of the Master and might have 
enjoyed the comforts of life for perhaps many years; he 
might have lived with his relatives and friends, and died 
in wealth and honor on the shores of Galilee, but he chose 
to become a disciple of the despised Savior, to go with 
Jesus and take the reproach, the suffering and death that 
the way promised. It was a wise choice. He was a very 
successful evangelist and we expect to see him and the 
souls that God gave him, when we get to Heaven. 

When Matthew found the ^^path of the just," which is as 
a *^ight that shineth more and more," and which, instead 



14 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

of being dim in old age, or terminating at death, unfolds 
to the soul's enraptured vi&ion, scenes of ecstatic joy, he 
found something that was better than the pleasures of 
sense. The joy of holiness increases, but "like the crack- 
ling of thorns under a pot, so is the mirth of the wicked." 
How brief their joy! and how dependent upon circum- 
stances which are often beyond their control I 

One wretched boy of high birth, who&« life had been one 
round of pleasure, cried out, "My soul as my body, lies in 
ruins, in scattered fragments of broken thoughts. Remorse 
for the past throws my thought on the future ; worse dread 
of the future strikes it back on the past. I turn and turn, 
and find no ray. Didst thou feel half the mountain that 
is on me, thou would&t struggle with the martyr for his 
stake and bless Heaven for the flame that is not an un- 
quenchable fire. * * Hell itself (God) is a refuge if it 
hides me from thy frown." What a death-bed confession ! 
wrung forth by the tortures that nature put upon that boy. 
Who would not choose the death of the righteous, even 
though it might be one of suffering? But there is no 
promise of such a death a& the child of God dies, except to 
those who forsake all, as Matthew did, and follow Jesus. 

JAMES THE LESS^ OR JAMES THE JUST 

An account of the death of James, our Lord's brother, 
bishop of the church at Jerusalem, is given by Josephus, 
who says that he was fir&t thrown down from the pinnacle 
of the temple where he was standing telling the people of 
Christ, and then he was stoned to death. Historians agree 
as to the manner of his death and they say that though he 
nras much hurt by the fall he was able to arise upon his 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 16 

kneee, and then he prayed that his enemies might be for- 
given. They would not hear his prayers, but gave him a 
shower of stones and one of his persecutors, kinder than 
the rest, a fuller, with club in hand, dashed out his brains^ 
and thus James died at the age of ninety-six years. 

MATTHIAS 

Matthias was' supposed to have been elected to fill the 
place of Judas in the immediate apostleship of Jesus. He 
preached in Judea and elsewhere and there is no doubt 
that he sealed his ministry with his blood; though histori- 
ans disagree as to the manner of his death, some recording 
that he was stoned and then beheaded, and others that he 
was crucified. His death was no less violent than that of 
Judas, and it of course brings up that sad memory of the 
account we have of Judas'* suicide. 

People may be much alike in their public life for many 
years and much alike in their manner of death, and yet be 
separated by a great, impassable gulf at last. You may 
not think that there is a Judas in your family or by your 
side in the work, and still you may be very near to one 
who will betray his Lord, and then commit suicide or 
some other awful crime. 

ANDREW 

Andrew, Simon Peter^s brother, carried the gospel to 
many Asiatic nations. He was finally scourged by order 
of Aegenas, proconsul of Achaia, and then, as he remained 
constant, was crucified, being fa&iened to the cross with 
cords that his suffering might continue longer. The tim- 



16 MAETYRS IN ALL AGES. 

bcrs of the cross were placed transversely and one end of 
each timber placed in the ground. That style of cross 
bears his name to this day, and is a silent reminder to 
every century of how Andrew died for his Lord. He wel- 
comed the cross and as he drew near to it, exclaimed, "I 
have long desired and expected this happy hour. The 
cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging 
upon it, and adorned with His members as with so many 
inestimable jewels." He then prayed and exhorted the 
people to remain true to God and instructed them as best 
his suffering would admit, for two days. Great effort was 
made to have his life spared, but he was ready to go and 
prayed that he might soon depart. God heard his prayers 
and took him home. His body was taken from the cross 
and honorably buried, by the order, it is thought, of the 
proconsul's wife, Maximillia, and afterward removed by 
Constantino to Constantinople and buried in his great 
church that he built to the apostle's honor. 

MARK 

"Eusebius tells us that St. Mark was sent into Egypt by 
St. Peter to preach the gospel, and accordingly planted a 
church in Alexandria, the metropolis of it. He did not, 
however, confine himself to Alexandria, and the oriental 
parts of Egypt, but moved westward to Lybia, passing 
through the countries of Marmacia, Pentapolis, and others 
adjacent, where the people were both barbarous in their 
manners, and idolatrous in their worship, yet by his preach- 
ing and miracles he prevailed upon them to embrace the 
tenets of the gospel; nor did he leave them until he had 
confirmed them in the faith. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 17 

After this long tour he returned to Alexandria, where 
he preached with greatest freedom, ordered and disposed 
of the affairs of the church, and wisely provided for a suc- 
cession, by constituting governors and pastors of it. But 
the restless enemy of the souls of men would not suffer our 
apostle to continue in peace and quietness; for while he 
was assiduously laboring in the vineyard of his Master, the 
idolatrous inhabitants, about the time of Easter, when 
they were celebrating the solemnities of Serapis, tumultu- 
ously entered the church, forced St. Mark, then performing 
divine service, from thence, and binding his feet with cords, 
dragged him through the streets and over the most craggy 
places to the Bucelus, a precipice near the sea, leaving him 
there in a lonesome pri&on for that night; but his great 
and beloved Master appeared to him in a vision, comfort- 
ing and encouraging his soul, under the ruins of his shat- 
tered body. The next morning early, the tragedy began 
afresh, for they dragged him about in the same cruel and 
barbarous manner, till he expired; but their malice did 
not end with his death ; they burnt his mangled body after 
they had so inhumanly deprived it of life. The christians, 
after the horrid tragedy was over, gathered up his bones 
and ashes, and decently interred them near the place where 
he used to preach. His remains were afterward, with great 
pomp, removed from Alexandria to Venice, where they 
were religiously honored, and he was adopted tutelar saint 
and patron of that state." (Lives of the Apostles, by 
John Fleetwood, D. D.) 

PETER 

Some of Peter's sufferings are recorded by the Holy 
Ghost. The story of his miraculous release from prison is 



"^iS MARTYRS m ALL AGES. 

a part of the Word that shall endure forever, but we have 
to look to profane history for information in regard to 
his martyrdom which took place near the end of the reign 
of Nero. 

The manner of his death is foretold in John 21 : 18, 19. 
It seems that it was a frequent method of degrading chris- 
tians to put a yoke upon their necks and stretch their arms 
upon it as if it were a cross and lead them through the 
&treets to their place of execution. 

A great fire broke out in Rome in A. D. 64, and the 
emperor laid the blame of it upon the christians, and there 
is a weight of evidence to show that Peter was one to 
suffer toward the close of the merciless persecutions that 
, followed the great fire. Nero gave order that Peter and 
Paul be cast into prison. They were accordingly appre- 
hended and placed in the Mamertime prison, where they 
were confined until they were executed, and it is thought 
that the second epistle of Peter was written while he was 
in this prison. How he endeavors to confirm the chris- 
tians and strengthen them against the poisonous doctrines 
which were even at that time threatening them ! 

It is said that when he came to the place of execution 
he begged that he might not be crucified in the same man- 
ner as others had suffered upon the cross, because he felt 
that he was not worthy to suffer and die like his Lord had 
died, and the request was granted. He was nailed head 
downward upon the cross. We are told that his body was 
taken from the cross and embalmed by Mercellius and then 
buried near the Appian way, in the Vatican, two miles 
from Rome. 



A PEESECUTED PEOPLE, 19 

PAUL 

If a person could, by feiiffering, atone for his sin, it 
would seem from Bible history that PauPs atonement was 
complete long before the time of his execution, A. D. 66. 
His fame as a persecutor was far reaching. ''Being ex- 
ceedingly mad against them (the christians), I persecuted 
them even unto strange cities." We do not knew how 
much of the responsibility for the murder of Stephen, 
rested upon Paul, but the Scripture says that he kept the 
raiment of the men who slew him, and we find him the 
self-confessed murderer of many. "I persecuted this way 
unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons, both 
men and women," — "and when they were put to death, I 
gave my voice against them." At Jerusalem and in con- 
tiguous districts, Paul wae active in torturing and scat- 
tering the christians, imprisoning some and putting others 
to death(. 

Of his own persecutions, he says, "Of the Jews five 
times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I 
beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered ship- 
wreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in 
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of rob- 
bers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the 
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in 
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger 
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 
These did not come as a punishment for sins, nor did he 
"perish with the sword," because he had taken the sword 
(Matt. 26: 52), but because he possessed and preached an 
uttermost salvation. Heb. 7 :25. 



20 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

The wonderful faith chapter that Paul wrote, listing 
the sufferings of the christians and their victories, bears 
all the weight of his sincerity which was so soon to receive 
its final test. Paul was ready to die, — ^he said so; Acts 
21: 13. When he came to the hour of his execution, he 
did not place himself in the li&t of those who draw back to 
perdition, but cheerfully bowed his head, for the stroke 
was all there was between him and the Country that John 
beheld for the first time some thirty years later, where the 
inhabitants ^^unger no more, neither thirst any more," 
where they are clothed in white robes and have palms in 
their hands. Paul now is with a great multitude who have 
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb. Eev. 7 : 9. 

No one would envy Paul at Damascus, where the Jews 
took counsel to kill him and he had to escape at night, 
being let down '^y the wall in a basket." No one would 
want to be stoned and dragged out of town and left for 
dead as he was at Lystra. No one would want the ship- 
wrecks and the scourgings that he suffered; but everyone 
would like to have a victory like Paul's that would tri- 
umph over every difficulty, and the Christ who purchased 
it for him purchased it for you, for there is no respect of 
persons with God. 

JUDE 

We find in the catalogue of apostles, Jude, brother of 
James the less; but he calls himself only, "the servant of 
Christ," in his epistle. It is claimed by some early writers 
that he was crucified. A number agree that after many 
years of successful ministry, Jude was "cruelly put to 
death/' and that his brother Simeon, after days of tor- 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 21 

ture, was crucified, bearing all his suffering with great 
firmness. One historian tells of a man who for seven or 
eight years before the de&truction of Jerusalem cried out 
against the city and went up and down its streets and lanes, 
prophesying against the city, until he was slain by on'e of 
the first weapons that came upon it in fulfillment of his 
prophecy. We doubt not that it was Jude. History saye 
that the man wa& whipped until his bones were laid bare. 
He shed no tears, but at every lash he cried, '^oe, woe 
to Jerusalem!" The authorities could not silence him; 
death alone hushed that cry. Oh, for more prophets who 
cannot be hushed into silence ! "For seven years and five 
months, though beaten every day, his melancholy cry still 
sounded through the city till the enemy besieged it * • 
and he wae instantly killed." 

BARTHOLOMEW 

Bartholomew was with Philip and helped to pray down 
the revival at Hieropolis, which had so provoked the mag- 
istrates as to procure Philip's death sentence, and they 
soon had Bartholomew fastened to the cross, and then, 
according to some records, were so convicted that they 
took him dovm and set him free and he preached else- 
where, endeavoring to reclaim people from idolatry, but 
again the magi&trates became enraged and prevailed upon 
the governor to put him to death, and he then cheerfully 
sealed his testimony with his blood. According to some 
writers he was first flayed alive and then crucified head 
downward. 

How many there are who have been helped down from 
some cross by convicted, convinced, but not converted 



22 c MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

people; only to be crucified again in greater agony and 
shame I If God plants a cross in your pathway, you can- 
not escape it and get to Heaven. 

THOMAS 

Thomas, we are told, cloeed his evangelistic labors, by 
the mouth of the Ganges, and it is said that after he was 
slain he was buried in the house of worship that he had 
commenced to erect by that river. At first he was bit- 
terly opposed by the prince of that country, but the prince 
was afterward converted in the meetings, and following 
his example, a large number of people embraced the chris- 
tian . faith. The Brahmins feared that everyone would 
loE-e faith in their religion as a result of the apostle's 
labors, and decided to put him to death. There was a 
tomb near by, where Thomas had his private prayers, and 
the Brahmins finding him there one day, showered darts 
upon -him, and one record says that he was also stoned. 
Finally one of the priests ran him through with a lance, 
and so he died. 

LUKE 

Luke, the beloved physician, freely gave hi& life for the 
truth he had preached and published, and exchanged mar- 
tyrdom for Heaven; but we do not know any particulars 
about how death came to him. It is supposed that the 
idolatrous priests hanged him upon an olive tree in Greece. 

SIMON THE CANAANITB 

Simon the Canaanite, who by Luke was called Simon 
Zelotes, was a very zealous apostle of Jesus and very sue- 



A PERSBOUTED PEOPLE. 23 

cee'sful, great multitudes being converted by his preaching. 
As near as we can determine by comparing various records 
of his travels;, he went to Africa and preached to the bar- 
barians there, then leaving those burning wastes he jour- 
neyed to Britain where he preached until he was crucified. 

JOHN THE EVANGELIST 

John traveled and founded a number of churches, but 
we are told that "his chief place of residence was Ephesus, 
where Paul many years before founded a church, and con- 
stituted Timothy bishop." He escaped violent death, but 
he did not escape violence. After living at Ephesus several 
years, he was "accused to Domitian, and by his command 
the proconsul sent him bound to Kome,'^ where, according 
to profane history, he was thrown into a caldron of boiling 
oil, but was delivered miraculously and escaped unharmed 
as did the three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace. 
This deliverance of John is questioned by some; but we 
have no reason to doubt its truth. Later, he was banished 
to a desolate island, called Patmos, in the Grecian archi- 
pelago, and while there wrote the book of Eevelation. 
Eusebius records his death at ninety-eight years of age, 
and his burial at Ephesus, whither he had returned after 
the death of Domitian, to care for the church there, as 
Timothy, its bishop, had been lately martyred. 

BARNABAS 

Barnabas had the honor of assuring the apostles of the 
sincerity of Paul. He is described a& being good and full 
of the Holy Ghost. He labored with Paul until they sep- 



34 MARTYES IN ALL AGES. 

arated at the time of their disagreement in regard to the 
propriety of taking John Mark with them on a missionary 
trip. From that time forth, but little is said in ecclesi- 
astical reports about him, but his ministry is supposed to 
have been continuously successful until, when preaching in 
Syria, the Jews killed him. After dragging him out of 
the synagogue and cruelly torturing him, they put him to 
death. John Mark, a witness of the barbarous proceed- 
ings, buried his body in a cave. 

CLEMENT 

Ancient history tells us that Clement was banished by 
Trajan, beyond the Euxine Sea. The sacred writings give 
no account of his death; but Clement's name, Paul says, 
is in the book of life, and the Eoman church places it 
among the martyrs. It is also claimed that Mary Mag- 
dalene sealed her faith with her blood. 

FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE REFORMATION 

It is impossible to record the history of all the martyrs 
under Nero, Domitian, and under ISTerva and his successor, 
Trajan, but we give a few as examples of the barbarities 
practiced upon God's people in those days. It seems that 
every infernal device that could be invented was used to 
increase the christians' suffering, and no age was tender 
enough, and none ripe enough to escape the cruelties prac- 
ticed. Nero had some of the christians fastened to trees 
and fire applied to them, until they became bloody torches 
to light his gardens. Others he had sewed up in skins of 
wild beasts and then they were worried and tortured by 
dogs until they expired; but Nero could not kill off all 
th^ christians ; he increased their number. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 25 

SIMEON 

After Trajan became emperor he sent forth his com- 
mand that whoever could be found of the stock of David 
should be put to death. Simeon, at that time bishop of 
Jerusalem, was accused of being a christian and was 
scourged many days. He was one hundred and twenty 
years old, but God gave him grace so that he did not 
waver in his faith, and ere long he was crucified and died 
in the Lord. Some of his accusers were of the stock of 
David and were also apprehended and executed. 

PHOCAS 

Phocas, another christian bishop, was cast into a hot 
lime-kiln by Trajan, because he would not sacrij&ce to Nep- 
tune. He was afterward put into a scalding bath and 
thus died for his faith. We believe none of the bishops of 
today will meet a like fate, and we fear we shall not meet 
all of them in Heaven, but we expect to meet Bishop 
Phocas there. 

IGNATIUS 

Under the reign of Trajan, Ignatius was condemned to 
death and ordered to be thrown to the wild beasts. He 
had taught people to think far more of God and of the 
future than of the present life and was very thankful 
when he learned that he was counted worthy to suifer for 
his faith in Christ. For more than forty years he was 
bishop of Antioch and it was thought that his martyrdom 
would so terrorize his followers that they would be dis- 
couraged, and for this reason he was selected to be the 



26 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

object of the utmost cruelties that could be inflicted. He 
wrote to the christians and told them to keep faith and to 
pray for him. He kept the faith to the last and died in 
great triumph. 

ZENON AND SOME TEN THOUSAND OTHERS 

It is affirmed by historians that in the time of Adrian, 
Trajan's successor, Zenon, a Eoman nobleman, and some 
ten thousand other persons were martyred. In Mount 
Ararat many were crowned with thorns in a blasphemous 
imitation of Christ's crown of thorns, and crucified, and 
then sharp darts were thrust into their sides as the spear 
was thrust by the soldier into the side of Christ when He 
was hanging upon the cross. 

FAUSTINES AND JOBITA 

During Adrian's reign, Faustines and Jobita were mar- 
tyred and were so faithful to Christ in all the tortures 
they suffered that a bystander, a pagan, marveled greatly 
and exclaimed^ "Great is the God of the christians !" For 
this expression of admiration for their God, he also suf- 
fered death. 

Thus the record of the persecutions which the people of 
God suffered at the hands of the heathen, continues. 

JUSTIN MARTYR 

Justin Martyr, honored martyr and apologist, gave his 
life for the truth during these days of horrid butcheries. 
He was not only remarkable for his christian life and 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 27 

death, but he was one of the most eloquent and convincing 
defenders of Christianity. In some of his writings he says 
that a chance conversation with an aged stranger brought 
him to the knowledge of the truth. In another place he 
says he was drawn to Christianity because he saw the 
christians constant in death. Many others of the second 
century could say the same. Justin Martyr says of Christ, 
"No one trusted in Socrates so as to die for his doctrine; 
but in Christ, not only philosophers, but also artisans and 
people entirely uneducated, die, despising both glory and 
fear of death." 

EARLY MARTYRDOM IN ASIA AND FRANCE 

Under the reign of Marcus Aurelius- Antonius, A. D. 61, 
a large number of christians suffered martyrdom in Asia 
and in France. During his reign, as under previous rulers, 
the persecutors resorted to various methods of torture. 
Some were scourged until it seemed that they would be 
flayed alive^ and others were driven barefooted, over sharp 
shells and thorns, and then put to most horrible deaths. 

GERMANICUS 

Germanicus, a true christian young man, was thrown to 
wild beasts to be devoured by them. He exhibited such 
constancy and such intrepidity that several of the specta- 
tors were converted to the same faith. 

POLYCARP 

Polycarp, the distinguished disciple of John, and suc- 
cessor of Ignatius in the care of the church of Antioch, 
was among the martyrs at Smyrna. He was one of the 



2-8 



MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 



most eminent christians living at the time and was selected 
by the multitude as one who mu&t be burned at the stake, 
for he was one of the greatest promoters of the true faith. 
They would have nailed him to the stake, or bound him 
with iron hoops, but he assured them that he would not try 
to get away ; but God would give him grace to suffer. He 
said, "I shall abide and not stir in the midst of the fire." 
The God that gave him strength thus to testify and die 
in tlie fire can do the same for any who are going through 
fiery triak- today. May the number increase that will 
"abide and not stir in the midst of the fire." We close 
the account of his death by giving a part of his last 
prayer: "0 God, the Father of thy beloved Son, Jesus 
Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of thy- 
self; God of angels and powers, of every creature, and 
of all the just who live in thy presence, I thank thee that 
thou hast graciously vouchsafed, this day and this hour to 
allot me a portion amongst the number of martyrs. 
Lord, receive me, make me a companion of saints in the 
resurrection, through the merits of our great high priest, 
the Lord Jesus Christ. I praise and adore thee through 
thy beloved Son, to whom with thee and thy holy Spirit, 
be all honor and glory, both now and forever. Amen." 
He also gave the following exhortation to christians: 
"Let u& then continuously persevere in our hope and the 
earnest of our righteousness which is Jesus Christ who 
bore our sins in His own body on the tree, who did no 
sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, but endured 
all things for us that we might live in Him. Let us then, 
if we suffer for His name's sake, glorify Him, for He 
has set us the example in Himself, and we have believed." 




A Street Scene 



(See page 32-) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 29 

PELICITAS AND HER SEVEN CHILDREN 

From "Foxe's Book of Martyrs," we select and print 
further record of the ten primitive persecutions, as follows : 

"In Rome suffered Felicitas and her seven children, of 
whom her first, the eldest son, after he was whipped ani 
scourged with rods, was pressed to death with leaden 
weights; two had their brains beaten out; another was 
cast headlong, and had his neck broken; the rest were 
beheaded,. Last of all, Felicitas, the mother, was dain 
with the sword." 

MARTYRS OF LYONS AND VIENNE 

"In the same persecution in Rome suffered the glorious 
and most constant martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, two 
cities in France, giving to Christ a most glorious testimony, 
and to all christian men a spectacle, or example of singular 
constancy and fortitude in Christ, our Savior. The fol- 
lowing are extracts from a letter of their own church to 
their brethren in Asia and Phrygia : 

*The servants of Christ, inhabiting the cities of Vienne 
and Lyons, to the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, having the 
same faith and hope of redemption with us: peace, grace 
and glory from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ 
our Lord. 

The greatness of this our tribulation, the furious rage 
of the Gentiles against us, and the torments which the 
blessed martyrs suffered, we can neither in words, nor yet 
in writing, set forth as they deserve. For the adversary in 
every place practiced and instructed his ministers how, in 
most spiteful manner, to set them against the servants of 
God: so that not only in our houses, shops and markets, 



30 MAETYES IN ALL AGES. 

were we restrained, but also universally commanded that 
none should be seen in any place. But God hath always 
mercy in store, and took out of their hands such as were 
weak amongst us, and others He set up as firm, immovable 
pillars, who, by suffering, were able to abide and valiantly 
to withstand the enemy, enduring all the punishment they 
could devise : they fought this battle for Christ, esteeming 
their great troubles as light: thereby showing that all 
that may be suffered in this present life, is not to be com- 
pared with the great glory which shall be shewed upon us 
after life. They patiently suffered railings, scourging, 
drawings and halings, flinging of stones, imprisonments, 
and whatever the rage of the multitude is wont to us-e 
against their enemies; then being led into the market 
place and there judged; after their confession, made openly 
before the multitude, they were sent back again to prison.' 

VETIUS EPAGATHUS 

^etius Epagathus, having within him the fervent zeal 
of love and the spirit of God, could not suffer the wicked 
judgment which was given upon the christians, with whom, 
said he, i& no impiety found. The justice * * * asked 
him, whether he himself w^re a christian or not. And he 
immediately answered with a loud and bold voice, and 
said, *I am a christian.' And thus he was received into 
the fellowship of the martyrs, and called the advocate of 
the christians. 

By this man's example, the rest of the martyrs were the 
more animated with all courage of mind. Some of them 
were unready and not so well prepared, and as yet weak 
and not as well able to bear so great a conflict; of whom 
there were ten who fainted, ministering to us much heavi- 



A PEE8ECUTED PEOPLE. SI 

ness and lamentation, who, by their example, caused the 
rest, which were not yet apprehended, to be less willing 
thereto. With these, also, certain men-servants were ap- 
prehended, and they, fearing the torments which they saw 
the saints suffer, being also compelled thereto by means of 
the soldiers, charged against us that we kept the feastings 
of Thyestes and of Oedipus, and many other crimes, which 
are neither to be remembered, nor named of us, nor yet to 
be thought that any man would ever commit the like. 

These things being bruited abroad, every man began to 
shew cruelty against us, insomuch that those who before 
were more gentle, vehemently disdained us now, and waxed 
mad against us, and thus was fulfilled the saying that was 
spoken by Christ, saying, 'The time will come that who- 
soever killeth you shall think that he doeth God service.' 
Then suffered the martyrs of God such bitter persecution 
as is passing to be told. 

Now the emperor had written that all the confessors 
should be punished, and others let go. The governor, 
therefore, caused all the holy martyrs to be brought to the 
sessions, that the assembled multitude might behold them, 
and he again examined them; as many of them as he 
thought had the Roman freedom he beheaded, the residue 
he gave to the beasts to be devoured ; and truly Christ was 
much glorified by those who but a little before had denied 
Him, who now, contrary to the expectation of the infidels, 
confessta Him even to the death.' 

ALEXANDER 

'While they were being examined, one Alexander, stand- 
ing somewhat near to the bar, by signs encouraged such as 



32 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

were examined to confess Christ; so that by his coun- 
tenance, sometimes rejoicing and sometimes sorrowing, he 
was' observed by the standers-by. Th-e people not taking in 
good part to see those who had recanted again to stick to 
their first confession, cried out against Alexander as one 
who was the cause of this matter. And when he was forced 
by the judge, and demanded what religion he was of, he 
answered, ^I am a christian.^ He had no sooner spoken 
the word than he was condemned to be devoured by the 
wild beasts. Neither yet did it content them when they 
had put the christians to death; for those whom they 
strangled in their prison, they threw to the dogs, setting 
keepers both day and night to watch them, that they should 
not be buried; and bringing forth the remnant of their 
bones, some half burned, some left of the wild beasts, and 
some all mangled; also bringing forth heads of others 
which were cut off, and committing them to the charge of 
the keepers to see thiem remain unburied.' 

Thus were the bodies of the martyrs made a wondering 
stock, and lay six days in the open streets; at length they 
burned them and threw their ashes into the river Ehone, 
so that there might appear no remnant of them upon the 
earth. And this they did as if they had been able to have 
pulled God out of His seat, and to have hindered the re- 
generation of the saints, and taken from them the hope of 
the resurrection. 

After the death of Marcus Aurelius Antonius, his son 
Lucius Antonius Commodus succeeded, A. D. 180, who 
reigned thirteen years. * * * The emperor Commodus, 
upon one of his birthdays, having called the people to- 
gether, clothed him&elf with great royalty, having his 
lion's skin upon him^ and offered sacrifices to Hercules and 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 83 

Jupiter; causing it to be proclaimed throughout the city 
that Hercules was the patron and defender of the city. 

VINCENTIUS, EUSEBIUS, PEREGRINUS AND POTENTANUS 

In Home, Vincentius, Eusebius, Peregrinus, and Poten- 
tanus, learned mien and instructors of the people, who fol- 
lowing the steps of the apo&tles, went about from place to 
place where the gospel was not preached, converting the 
Gentiles to the faith of Christ. These hearing of the 
madness of the emperor and the people, began to reprove 
their idolatrous blindness, teaching in the villages and 
towns all who heard them to believe upon the true and 
only God, and to come away from such worshiping of 
devils: * * * but the emperor hearing of it, cau&ed 
them to be apprehended, and to be compelled to sacrifice 
to Hercules, which when they stoutly refused, after divers 
grievous torments, they were at last put to death with 
leaden weights. 

JULIUS 

Julius, a senator of Rome, won by the preaching of these 
blessed men to the faith of Christ, * * * did not keep 
his faith close and secret, but with marvelous and sincere 
zeal, openly professed it. * * * The emperor hearing 
that Julius had forsaken his old religion and become a 
christian, forthwith sent for him and said, ^0 Julius, 
what madness has possessed thee, that thou do&t fall from 
the religion of thy fathers, and now dost embrace a new 
and fond kind of religion of the christians?' Julius hav- 
ing now a good occasion to show his faith, gave an account 
of it to him, and affirmed that Hercules and Jupiter were 
false gods', and that the worshipers of them should perish 
with eternal dainnation. The emperor hearing how he 



34 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

condemned and despised his gods, was very wroth, and 
committed him forthwith to the master of the soldiers, a 
very cruel and fierce man, charging him either to see Julius 
sacrifice to Hercules, or if he still refused, to slay him; 
and Julius continuing steadfast in the faith, was beaten 
to death with cudgels." 

In the years that followed to about A. D. 205, "an 
infinite number of martyrs was slain, as Eusebius in his 
sixth book records/' Various malicious suggestions and 
accusations were brought against the christians so that 
christians should not be tolerated at all, and there was 
great persecution. Among the things of which they were 
falsely accused was that they worshiped the sun because 
they assembled before sunrise to sing unto the Lord. At 
different periods, learned men were raised up to defend 
the christians for a time at least and protect them, saving 
some to a natural death and others until they had given 
their testimonies in many places. Among the defenders 
was Tertullian, who said of the murderous multitude, 
"The more we are mown down of you the more we rise up. 
The blood of christians is seed. For what man, in behold- 
ing the painful torments and the perfect patience of them 
will not search and inquire what is the cause ? And when 
he has found it out, who will not agree to it ? And when 
he agrees to it, who will not desire to suffer for it? Thus 
the sect will never die, but the more it is cut down the 
more it grows ; for every man seeing and wondering at the 
suffering of the saints, is moved the more thereby to search 
the cause; in searching he finds it, and in finding, he 
follows it." Tertullian was correct in his view of the 
matter. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLB. 36 

OBOEMA, HUSBAND AND BROTHER. 

A beautiful woman named Cecelia suffered and died for 
her faith in Christ, about the year 222. Of her it is writ- 
ten that by her exhortations, she won her brother-in-law 
and her husband to Christ and they were faithful until 
they died as martyrs and then she was condemned to death. 
The officers exhorted her to spare herself and not throw 
her life away, but she eo reasoned with them that they 
began to yield to her religion and granted her a respite. 
Then she sent for a teacher for them to come to her house 
and tell them of Christ, and history records some four 
hundred conversions from those meetings in her house. 
Cecelia was again condemned and at this time placed in 
a hot bath, %ut remaining there one day and night, with- 
out being hurt, was brought out and beheaded." 

QUINTA. 

The faithful martyrologi&i, John Foxe, records that 
under the reign of Decius, who became ruler in the year 
249, the martyrs were so numerous that it would be as 
hard to record th-eir names as to number the sands of the 
sea, and says, that the persecution "extended to many 
countries. We find traces of it,'' he says, "some of them 
very fearful, in Jerusalem, Antioch, Phrygia, Cappadocia, 
Spain, and elsewhere. They took a faithful woman (in 
Alexandria) called Quinta, and brought her to the temple 
of their idols, bound her feet and drew her through the 
whole street of the city upon the hard stones and so, dash- 
ing her against milestones, and scourging her with whips, 
brought her to the suburbs where they ended her life. This 



36 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

done in a great outrage, and with a great multitude run- 
ning together, they burst into the houses of the religious 
and godly christians, spoiling, sacking, and carrying away 
all they could find of any value. Such things as were of 
less value and of wood, they brought them into the open 
market and set them on fire. In the meantime the breth- 
ren withdrew themselves, taking patiently, and no less 
joyfully, the spoiling of their goods than they did of whom 
Paul wrote, Hebrews 10:34." 

APOLINIA. 

*^ Among the rest that were taken, there was a certain 
woman well stricken in years, named Apolinia, whom they 
brought forth, and dashing all her teeth out of her jaws, 
made a great fire before the city, threatening to cast her 
into the same, unless she would blaspheme with them and 
deny Christ. At this she, pausing a little as one that 
would consider herself, suddenly leaped into the midst of 
the fire, and there was burned. * * * 

Others again, after long imprisonments, before they 
should come before the judge, renounced their faith. Some 
also, after they had suffered torments, yet after revolted; 
but others being as strong, blessed, valiant pillars of the 
Lord's, fortified with constancy, agreeing to their faith, 
were made faithful martyrs of the kingdom of God." 

JULLiN. 

''The fir&t ^i these was Julian, a man diseased with the 
gout, and not Itglng able to walk, being carried by two 
;jmen. The old m^ confessing to the Lord with a perfect 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 37 

faith, was laid upon camels, and there scourged, at length 
cast into the fire, and with great constancy was consumed." 

LAWRENCE 

Lawrence, a martyr, who suffered with such victory 
that it is said that the emperor Decius seemed to be the 
greater sufferer of the two, "the one broiling in the flesh 
and the other burning in the heart." The order was given 
to "kindle the fire/' to "spare no wood," to "whip him 
with scourges," to "jerk him with rods," to "buffet him 
with fists," to "brand him with clubs," to "pinch him 
with fiery tongs." Fire forks and a grated bed of iron 
were brought out and placed upon the fire and when it 
was hot, Lawrence was bound and placed upon it and the 
order was "roast him, broil him, toss him, turn him," and 
every word of the order was carried out until he expired. 

THE TRAIL NOT LOST 

No emperor before Valerian, whose reign dated from 
A. D. 253, was so favorable as he to the christians. His 
court was filled with them ; but ere long he was turned to 
idols and base sins and inaugurated fresh persecutions, 
having infants, even new-born children, slain, and cutting 
up the bodies of many persons. The years that followed 
until 303 were of comparative peace and tranquillity and 
the church grew and spread rapidly, but the trail of suffer- 
ing, it seems, was not exactly lost at any time; the rack 
was employed and stripes and scourges fell upon young 
and old; neither sex nor any age was exempt from the 
cruel murdering. Some were hung by one hand and their 



38 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

bodies scratched all over with instruments pointed with 
talons of wild beasts ; some were bound to pillars, and dur- 
ing their trial hung with no support under their feet until 
nearly dead from pain or cold, some of them hanging all 
day long; others' were cast away half dead and others 
dragged through the streets while the multitude cried 
against them that they had sacrificed to idols. They 
suffered false accusation and died in reproach like their 
Lord. "Others who were brought to the altars and com- 
manded to do sacrifice, would ratlier thrust their right 
hand into the fire than to touch the profane and wicked 
sacrifices.^' Saints who were not tormented to death were 
"terrified without ceasing, *** but the purpose of the 
adversary did not prevail against the holy and constant 
servants of Christ." Young and beautiful maidens suf- 
fered much and were cast into the sea and drowned. 

"The christians of Mesopotamia were molested with 
many and various torments ; they were hanged up by their 
feet, their heads downward, and suffocated with the smoke 
of a small fire; and also in Cappadocia, where the martyrs 
had their legs broken." 

Martyrs were slain every day, and sometimes twenty to 
one hundred in various ways met death at the same time. 

It seems almost impossible to believe that any could be 
so blind as to fail to see with their spiritual eyes these 
lights that shone in those early days. How could convic- 
tion fail to fasten upon the hearts of those who witnessed 
the faithfulness of God's martyrs ? Is it any wond'er that, 
as sword thrusts were given to the christians, heart thrusts 
were felt by the persecutors, that in many instances led 
to their conversion, and while they struck with iron hooks 
and cudgels the flesh of the burning martyrs, God struck 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE, 39 

at their awful sins? Could they behold unmoved and un- 
convinced the victory God gave their victims, who, as the 
fetters burned off their hands, raised them toward Heaven 
and waved them triumphantly, and praised God while 
the fire burned until they died? 

In 305 the imperial dominion fell to Constantius and 
Galerius Maximinus. Constantino supported the chris- 
tians, but Galerius Maximinus appointed officers who con- 
tinued the persecution. We copy here from the faithful 
record of John Foxe. 

EULALIA 

"There is a city in Portugal called Emerita, wherein 
dwelt and was brought up a maiden bom of noble parent- 
age, whose name was Eulalia. She had refused great and 
honorable offers in marriage, a&' one not delighting in 
courtly dalliance, neither yet taking pleasure in purple 
and gorgeous apparel, nor costly ornaments; but, forsak- 
ing and despising all these pompous allurements, she 
showed herself most earnest in preparing her journey to 
her hoped-for inheritance and heavenly patronage. As 
she was so modest and discreet in behavior, so was she 
also witty and sharp in answering her enemies. But when 
the furious rage of persecution forced her to join herself 
with God's children in the household of faith, and when 
the christians were commanded to offer incense and sacri- 
fice to devils or to idol gods, then the blessed spirit of 
Eulalia began to kindle, and being of a prompt and ready 
wit, and pouring out her heart before God, provoked 
thereby the force and rage of her enemies against her; 
but the godly care of her parents, fearing lest the willing 



40 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

mind of this damsel, ready to die for Christ, might be the 
cause of her own death, hid her and kept her close in their 
house in the country, being a great way out of the city. 
She yet disliking that quiet life, and not wishing any delay, 
softly steals out of the doors at night, and leaving the com- 
mon road, passed through the thorny and briery places ; and 
although the silent night was dark and dreadful, yet she 
had with her the Lord and giver of light. And as the 
children of Israel coming out of Egypt had, by the mighty 
power of God, a cloudy pillar for their guide in the day, 
and a flame of fire in the night, had this godly maiden 
traveling in the dark night, when flying and forsaking the 
place where filthy idolatry abounded; she was not op- 
pressed by the dreadful darkness of the night. 

In the morning, with a bold courage, she goes to the 
tribunal, and in the midst of them all, with a loud voice 
crying out, said, ^I pray you, what a shame it is for you 
thus to destroy and kill men's souls, and to throw their 
bodies alive against the rocks, and cause them to deny 
the omnipotent God! Would you know (0 you unfor- 
tunate) what I am? Behold, I am one of the christians, 
an enemy of your devilish sacrifices; I spurn your idols 
under my feet. I confess God onanipotent with my heart 
and mouth. Isos, Apollo, and Venus, what are they! 
Maximinus, himself, what is he ! The one thing of naught 
for that they be the works of men's hands ; the other but a 
castaway because he worships them. Therefore they are 
both frivolous, Maximinus is a lord of substance, and yet 
he himself falls down before a stone, and vows the honor 
of his dignity to that which is much inferior to his vas- 
sals. Why then does he oppress so tyrannically more worthy 
and courageous spirits than himself? He must needs be 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 41 

a good upright judge, who feedeth upon innocent blood, 
doth rend and tear the bodies of godly men, and what is 
more, hath his delight in destroying and subverting the 
faith ! Go to, therefore, and burn, cut, and mangle these 
earthly members. It is' an easy matter to break a brittle 
substance, but the inward mind thou shalt not hurt !' Then 
the judge in a great rage said, ^Hangman, take her and 
pull her out by the hair of the head, and torment her to 
the uttermost ; let her feel the power of our country's gods 
and let her know what the imperial government of a prince 
is. But yet, thou sturdy girl, fain I would have thee 
(if it were possible), before thou die, to revoke this thy 
wickedness. Behold what pleasures thou maye&t enjoy by 
the honorable house thou comest of; thy fallen house and 
progeny follow thee to death with lamentable tears and 
the nobility of thy kindred make doleful lamentations for 
thee. What meanest thou? Wilt thou kill thyself, so 
young a flower, and so near these honorable marriages and 
great dowries thou mayest enjoy? Does- not the glisten- 
ing and golden pomp of a bridal move thee? Does not 
the piety of thy ancestors touch thee ? Who is not grieved 
by thy rashness and weakness? Behold here the furniture 
ready, prepared for thy terrible death; either thou shalt 
be beheaded with this sword, or eke with these wild beasts 
shalt thou be pulled in pieces, or else being cast into the 
fiery flames thou shalt be consumed to ashes. What great 
matter is it for thee, I pray thee, to escape all this? If 
thou wilt but take and put with thy fingers a little salt 
and incense into the censers, thou shalt be delivered from 
all these punishments.' 

To this Eulalia makes no answer, but throws down the 
idols, and spurns with her feet the incense prepared for the 



42 MABTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

censers. Then, without further delay, the executioners 
took her, and pulled one joint from another, and with the 
talons of wild beasts tore her sides to the hard bones ; she 
all this while singing and praising God in this wise, *Be- 
hold, Lord, I will not forget thee; what a pleasure it is 
for them, Christ, that remember thy triumphant vic- 
tories, to attain unto these high dignities !' And she still 
calls upon that holy name all stained and imbrued with 
her own blood. This she sang with a bold spirit, neither 
lamenting nor yet weeping, but being glad and cheerful, 
abandoning from her mind all heaviness and grief, when 
as out of a warm fountain, her mangled members bathed 
her white and fair skin with fresh blood. 

Then they proceeded to the last and final torment, which 
was not only the goring and wounding of her mangled 
body with the iron grate and hurdle, and terrible harrow- 
ing of her flesh, but burned her on every side with flaming 
torches; when the cracking flame reaching the crown of 
her head, consumed her; so she rested in peace.^' 

AGNES 

"No less worthy was Agnes, that constant martyr and 
damsel of God. She was very young when she first was 
dedicated to Christ, and boldly resisted the edicts of the 
emperor; and would not, through idolatry deny or forsake 
the holy faith. She willingly offered her body to hard 
and painful torments, not refusing to suffer whatever it 
should be, yea though it were death itself. She was there- 
fore ordered to be beheaded. And when she saw a sturdy 
eruel fellow stand behind her and approaching near to her, 
with a naked sword in his hand, ^I am now glad,' said she. 



i 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 43 

*and rejoice that thou art come. I will willingly receive 
into my bosom the length of this sword, that thus married 
unto Christ my spouse, I may surmount and escape all the 
darkness of this worlds Eternal Governor, vouchsafe 
to open the gates of Heaven, once shut up against the 
inhabitants of this earth, and receive, Christ, my soul 
that seeks thee!' Thus speaking and kneeling upon her 
knees she prays to Christ in Heaven, that her neck might 
be the readier for the sword. The executioner then with 
his bloody hand, finished her hope, and at one stroke, cut 
oif her head, and by such short and swift death prevented 
her feeling the pain of it" 

VENGEANCE FROM GOD 

There followed drought, famine, pestilence, so that the 
most precious treasures were sold for ever so little suste- 
nance, and starvation and death came to great numbers of 
people. They wandered about until too weak to stand, and 
then, falling in the midst of the streets, they lifted their 
hands toward Heaven and died begging for food, so that 
broad thoroughfares and alleys lay full of dead bodies, 
many of them being eaten by the dogs. People of higher rank 
and greater wealth, escaping the famine, were consumed 
by pestilence; God showing that vengeance was- His for 
the wrong doing of the people and He would repay. 

The faithful Foxe to whom we are so often indebted, 
continues : "It was evident to all how diligent and chari- 
table the christians were to the distressed in this their 
miserable extremity; for they showed compassion upon 
them, traveling every day, some in curing the sick, and 
some in burying the dead, who were forsaken by their own 
kindred. Some of the christians calling and gathering the 



44 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

multitude together, who were in danger of famine, dis- 
tributed bread to them whereby they gave occasion to all 
men to glorify the God of the christians, and to confess 
them to be the true worshipers of God, as appeared by 
their works. By the means hereof, the great God and 
defender of the christians, opened to them again the com- 
fortable light of His providence, so that peace fell upon 
them, as light to them that sit in darkness." 

Another historian records the vengeance of God upon 
the persecutors, particularly upon Galerius Maximinus who 
was visited by an awful incurable disease until his whole 
body was a mass of rottenness. Like Herod he was eaten 
with worms. Living animals and boiled flesh were placed 
against the open wounds, and swarms of vermin were thus 
drawn out of his tortured body. Thus he suffered for a 
year "torments and pains insupportable, greater than those 
he had inflicted upon the christians." At last his con- 
science was awakened, he acknowledged the christian's God 
and in intervals of his dreadful paroxysms, he pledged that 
he would do all he could for them. He commanded that 
the persecutions cease, that the christians' temples should 
be set up and that they should pray for him. Accordingly 
the christian prisoners were released, and Foxe says in his 
book of martyrs of this relief to the christians, "As many 
as had turned to idols from God during the persecution, 
embraced the christian faith again and there was six 
months of rest from persecutions, and then he sent forth 
edicts graven in brass and commanded that they be hung 
in every city, against the christians, ^and the magistrates 
in every province were very severe against the christians; 
some they condemned to death and some to exile,' so the 
persecutions were as great as they had been before. 




Theodoret, a Deacon 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 45 

PERSECUTIONS IN PERSIA 

Thus closed the persecutions under Maximinus; but the 
gospel spread into Persia and from A. D. 310 to 360 hun- 
dreds of martyrs suffered horrible deaths. On one occa- 
sion the empress of Persia fell sick and the blame of the 
calamity was upon the christians, and the empress gave 
orders that certain women should be quartered, and their 
limbs fixed upon poles between which the empress passed, 
that her health, by virtue of the charm, would be restored." 

A.CEPSIMUS AND ATHALAS 

*^Acepsimus and many other clergymen were seized upon, 
in Persia, and ordered to adore the sun; which refusing 
to do, they were scourged, then tortured to death, or kept 
in prison till they expired. Athalas, the priest, though not 
put to death, was so miserably racked that his arms were 
rendered useless; and he was ever afterward obliged to be 
fed like a child. In short, by this edict, about sixteen 
thus suffered horribly by torture, or lost their lives by some 
barbarous execution." 

THEODORET 

"Theodoret, a deacon, was imprisoned for two years, and, 
on being released, was ordered not to preach the gospel 
of Christ. He, however, did his utmost to propagate the 
gospel, for which he was miserably tortured, by having 
sharp reeds thrust under his nails; and then a knotty 
branch from a tree was forced into his body, and he ex- 
pired in the most excruciating agony." 



46 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

BADEMUS 

"Bademus, a christian of Mesopotamia, gave away his 
fortune to the poor, and devoted his life to religious re- 
tirement. This christian, with seven others, was seized 
and cruelly tortured. The christians who were appre- 
hended with Bademus, received martyrdom, though the 
manner is not recorded; and Bademus, after having been 
four months in prison, was beheaded by Narses, an apos- 
tate christian, who acted as the executioner, in order to 
convince the emperor that he was sincere in his renuncia- 
tion of th« christian f aith/^ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 47 



CHAPTEK II 

PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMATION. 

The Albigenses, Wycliffe* and the Lollards, Lord Cob- 
ham, John Hu&s, Jerome of Prague, Hundreds of Bo- 
hemians Slain, Girolamo (Jerome) Savonarola, Martin 
Luther, John Lambert, Zwingli and Switzerland, Henry 
Voes tod John Esch, Henry Sutphen, Monk, John Clerk 
of Melden, France, John Castellane, Wolfgang Schuch, a 
German, George Carpenter, Leonard Keyser, Council of 
Blood, Wendelmuta, a Widow, John Pistorius, a Learned 
man of Holland, Twenty-eight Martyred at Louvaine, 1543, 
Justus Jusburgh and Giles Tilleman, at Brussels, A. D. 
1544. Persecution at Ghent and Brussels, A. D. 1543, 
1544, Ursula and Maria, at Delden, A. D. 1545, Andrew 
Thiessen and Family, at Mechlin, A. D. 1545, John Joyer, 
and his Servant, at Toulouse, 1552. A Congregation in 
Paris Persecuted, Italian Martyrs, Barbarities in Calabria, 
Peter Waldo and the Waldenses, John Tewkesbury, Leather 
Seller, of London, James Bainham. Three Men Exe- 
cuted for Burning an Idol, William Tyndale, the Trans- 
lator of the Scriptures. 



In the beginning of the Reformation, as in the beginning 
of the world, there was great darkness. The centuries im- 
mediately preceding are appropriately called the dark ages. 
The church had been lulled to sleep; it had increased its 
ecclesiastical power, its dignity, form and ceremony, 
having apostatized from the faith. The fallen church in- 

*Out of thirteen contemporary entries in documents, 
twelve give "y" in the first syllable of Wycliffe. 



48 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

flicted more cruel tortures than the pagan world. The 
Scriptures were scarcely known and ere long the frightful 
curse of popery fell upon the unlearned multitudes' who 
were poisoned and deceived by the pope's doctrine. They, 
in their ignorance, were dependent upon the pastors alone 
for religious instruction, and the pastors received their 
commands from Eome where the interests of temporal 
profit alone prevailed, to the exclusion of gospel light. 

I 

THE ALBIGENSES j 

Ood saw that the people must have true witnesses and He 
iraised up many who were faithful even unto death. Among 
these were the Albigenses — so named from their residence 
in the country of Albi. They were a sect of "strange 
thinkers," that devoutly adhered to the Protestant faith. 
Their enemies made exaggerated statements concerning 
them, but historians acknowledge these to be lies, calling 
them "malicious additions" to the principles of these true 
followers of Christ. "They denied the sovereignty of the 
pope, the power of the priesthood, the efficacy of prayers 
for the dead, and the existence of purgatory." 

The priests of Eome were so unprincipled, grasping and 
exacting that they were despised by the nobility, as well 
as by the common people of the south, who, because of 
their tyranny, were fully ready for any doctrine that op- 
posed Eome, hence the Albigenses and their sympathizers 
multiplied rapidly. 

In A. D. 1207, Pope Innocent III declared war against 
them — a %oly war^' ; commanded that no life be spared 
and that the murderers divide the spoil for their reward. 
Thus, by order of the pope, those devoted peasants- were 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 49 

slain by the soldiers of Dominic. Half of the populatiom 
of the district was slaughtered and the heel of persecution 
held the rest in prison and torture because the order had 
not been completely carried out; but the sect was not ex- 
terminated for history records severe persecutions against 
them more than four hundred years later. 

WYCLIFFB AND THE LOLLARDS 

John Wycliffe, though not martyred for his testimony, 
was one of the first and one of the brightest lights of the 
Eeformation. He died in 1384, leaving many spiritual 
children who were destined to a martyr's crown. Wycliffe, 
however, had his share of suffering even to imprisonment. 
In February, 1377, he was brought to trial; but the trial 
came to naught a& it was broken up by a quarrel, between 
his defenders and the bishop, which ended in a riot. 

LORD COBHAM 

Many of Wycliffe's writings were burned, others were 
preserved and spread among the itinerant preachers, and 
one of them was read by Lord Cobham before the king, 
Henry V, who tried personally to persuade Cobham to 
renounce the awful "heresy," and return to "his mother, 
the holy church, and as an obedient child to acknowledge 
his fault.'' His reply, sentence and death is given in 
"Foxe's Books of Hartyrs," from which we quote the 
following : 

" *You, most worthy prince, I am always ready and 
willing to obey, as you are the appointed minister of God, 
bearing the sword for the punishment of evil doers ; but, 
as touching the pope and his spirituality, I owe him 



so MARTYRS m ALL AGES. 

neither suit nor service ; a& I know him, by the Scriptures, 
to be the great antichrist, the son of perdition, the open 
adversary of God, and the abomination standing in the 
holy place,' upon which the king delivered him to his 
enemies and in due time his death sentence was pro- 
nounced, after which he spoke to the concourse of people 
as follows: ^Though ye judge my body, which is but a 
wretched thing, yet I am certain and &ure ye can do no 
harm to my soul, any more than Satan did to the soul 
of Job. He that created it will, of His infinite mercy, 
and according to His promise, save it. Of this I have 
no manner of doubt. And as concerning the articles of my 
belief, by the grace of my eternal God, I will stand to 
them even to the very death. Good christian people, for 
God's love, be well aware of these men, else they will 
beguile you and lead you blindfold into Hell with them- 
selves.' Falling upon his knees, he said, 'Lord God eternal, 
I beseech Thee, of Thy great mercy's sake, to forgive my 
persecutors, if it be Thy blessed will.' His death was de- 
layed, but at last after some years, he was hung in chains 
over a slow fire and burned to death, suffering, it is said, 
'in most triumphant joy.'" Many others of Wycliffe's 
followers, then called Lollards, were bftirned alive. The 
word Lollard means constantly praising God. 

JOHN HUSS. 

In the meantime John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, had 
been preaching Christ to the Bohemians and many of 
them were converted. "He set out from Bohemia on 
October fourteen, 1414, not, however, until he had 
carefully ordered all his private affairs, with a pre* 




Lord Cobham 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 61 

sentiment, which he did not conceal, that in all prob- 
ability he was going to meet his death. On Novem- 
ber twenty-eight, Huss was arbitrarily seized and thrown 
into prison before any accusation whatever had been 
formulated. * * * jjis is undoubtedly the honor 
of having been the chief intermediary in handing 
on from Wycliife to Luther the torch which kindled the 
Eeformation, and of having been one of the bravest of the 
martyrs who have died in the cause of honesty and free- 
dom, of progress and of growth towards the light." — En- 
cyclopedia Brittanica. 

At the age of forty-&ix years he ended his life at the 
stake, and his ashes and "even the soil on which they lay, 
were carefully removed and thrown into the Ehine.'^ 

When he heard the death sentence he knelt down and 
lifting his eyes prayed, "May Thy infinite mercy, my 
God ! pardon this injustice of mine enemies. Thou knowest 
the injustice of their accusations; how deformed with 
crimes I have been represented ; how I have been oppressed 
with worthless witnesses, and a false condemnation; yet, 
my God ! let that mercy of Thine, which no tongue can 
express, prevail with Thee not to avenge my wrongs." 
Arriving at the place where he was to be executed he ex- 
claimed, "Into Thy hands, Lord ! do I commit my spirit : 
Thou hast redeemed me^ most good and merciful God !" 
When he was bound to the stake he smiled and said, "My 
Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than 
this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of 
this rusty one." The fires were lighted around him and 
fagots piled to his neck, but above the crackling of the 
fire and noise of the multitude, his voice could be heard, 
loud and cheerful, singing a hjrmn. 



52 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

JEROME OF PRAGUE 

A contemporary and disciple of John Hues, Jerome of 
Prague, was burned at the stake also. "In 1415 he went 
spontaneously to Constance^ determined to do what he 
could for Huss, who had meanwhile been imprisoned 
there; the news he received on his arrival was so discour- 
aging, however, that, panic stricken, he immediately again 
withdrew, though without a &afe conduct he would no 
doubt have reached Prague in safety had he only been 
able to hold his peace." 

Those who can hold their peace are the ones who evade 
persecution and miss the ^hundredfold'' that Jesus prom- 
ised with it. Jerome of Prague could not hold his peace. 
"Once,- when overcome by timidity and suffering, he re- 
tracted the statements that brought persecution down upon 
him, but in May, 1415, all his timidity seems to have left 
him, and in a bold and vigorous declaration he solemnly 
retracted the retraction which had previously been wrung 
from him. He said^ 'Of all the sins that I have com- 
mitted since my youth, none weigh so heavily upon my 
mind and cause me such keen remorse as that which I 
committed in that evil place when I approved of the in- 
iquitious sentence against Wycliffe and the holy martyr, 
John Huss, my master and friend.' Four days afterwards 
he was condemned as a relapsed heretic ; his reply was an 
appeal to the supreme Judge before whom he and his 
accusers were destined to stand. Two days later he 
marched with a cheerful countenance to the stake, bidding 
the executioner light the fire before his face; saying, 'Had 
I the least fear, I should not be standing in this place.' 
His ashes, like those of Huss, were gathered and thrown 




John Huss 



(See page 50.) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 53 

into the Ehine." — Encyclopedia Brittanica. His last words 
were these, "This soul in flames I offer, Christ, to Thee/^ 

HUNDREDS OP BOHEMIANS SLAIN. 

After the death of Hues and Jerome of Prague, the 
papaxjy convened to excommunicate all who held to their 
faith. Some of the reformed Bohemians resisted the 
papists and thus brought upon all of their Protestant 
countrymen the most violent persecutions. The pope of- 
fered to forgive all the sins of any persons who would kill 
even one Bohemian Protestant, and the number of people 
desirous of obtaining forgiveness of sins at that time was 
very great. Bohemians were thrown by the hundreds into 
deep mines and left to perish; some were imprisoned for 
a time and then dragged through the streets; twenty- 
four were bound hand and foot and cast into the 
river Abbis and drowned; an aged minister was killed, 
while he lay sick in bed; another, shot, when preach- 
ing in his pulpit. Young women were brutally treated 
in unnamable ways before the eyes of their parents 
who were unable to save them from the soldiers. It seemed 
to be a desire of the wretches to degrade their victims and 
subject them to as great torture as possible before killing 
them; thus, they would pull out their teeth or their toe 
or finger nails, or pour hot lead over their fingers. Some 
ministers were first covered with coals and then with ice, 
these applications', being alternated until death came, pro- 
longed and increased the victims' suffering. 

GIROLAMO ( JEROME) SAVONAROLA 

Looking over the bloody history that intervened to 1499, 
we come to the record of Savonarola. The following record 



54 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

of his life and death is from M'Clintock and Strong's 
Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopaedia. 

"Savonarola, Girolama, an Italian monk, reformer and 
martyr, the leader of an incipient reformation of the 
church in the latter half of the fifteenth century, a man 
whose eventful life and tragic death have called forth the 
most contradictory judgments, and whose real character is 
even to this day a matter of dispute with certain historians. 
Savonarola was bom of an honorable family at Ferrara, 
September twenty-one, 1452. His education was care- 
fully conducted. It was intended that he should devote 
himself to natural and medical science, but his early re- 
ligious development turned him into another course. He 
was fond of solitude, and avoided the public walks of the 
ducal palace. * * * In the main he was in accord 
with Catholic orthodoxy, and he carried the monkish prin- 
ciples of abstinence and self-denial to an intense extreme. 
But he laid great emphasis on certain doctrines which the 
clergy of the age had greatly neglected, viz., that the Scrip- 
tures lead us chiefly to Christ, and not to the saints ; that 
without the forgiveness of God no priestly absolution is 
of any avail; and that salvation comes of faith and sub- 
mission to the Eedeemer, and not from outward works or 
educational polish. Still there was felt throughout his 
sermons rather more of the earnestness of the law than 
of the gentleness of the gospel. One year after his arrival 
in Florence he was made prior of San Marco. Contrary 
to all precedent, Savonarola omitted to call and pay his 
respects to the civil ruler of the city, Lorenzo. This was 
all the more singular as Lorenzo had made large gifts to 
San Marco, and had always shown all respect to the priest- 
hood. But Savonarola saw in him simply the incarnation 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 55 

of worldliness, and the robber of his country's liberties. 
He feared his friendship more than his hatred. Lorenzo 
resorted to all the arts of cunning and flattery, but in vain ; 
he did not win the smiles of the stern preacher of righteous- 
ness. Lorenzo died April eight, 1492. On his death-bed he 
sent for Savonarola and desired absolution. Savonarola 
exacted three things: faith in Christ; the restoration of 
all ill-gotten property; and the re-establishment of the 
city's liberties: To the first two he cheerfully assented; 
to the latter he demurred. Thereupon the stern prior of 
San Marco departed. This third demand is not mentioned 
by Politian; it may be apocryphal. 

The death of Lorenzo was the signal for the outbreak 
of the storm. He was succeeded by his rash and arbitrary 
son, Pietro II. The same year the notorious Cardinal 
Borgia ascended the papal throne as Alexander VI. Sa- 
vonarola continued his exhortations to repentance and his 
predictions of speedy judgments. *A storm will break in/ 
said he^ ^a storm that will shake the mountains; over the 
Alps there will come against Italy one like Cyrus of whom 
Isaiah wrote.' Soon thereafter Charles VIII of France 
actually came with a great army, not to reform the church, 
however, but to take the vacant throne of Naples. Pietro 
Medici capitulated without resistance. Thereupon the 
wrath of the people broke out, and the Medici were forced 
to fly to Bologna. The senate pronounced them traitors, 
and set a price on their heads. But, as the aristocratic 
faction still desired to retain all political offices, Savon- 
arola summoned a great popular assembly in the cathedral, 
and assumed the role of a theocratic tribune. By general 
consent he became the legislator of Florence. As the 
foundation of the new order of things, he proposed four 



56 MARTYRS IN- ALL AGES. 

principles: (1) fear God; (2) prefer the weal of the re- 
public to thine own; (3) a general amnesty; (4) a council 
after the pattern of Venice, but without a doge. His 
political maxims he borrowed mostly from Aquinas. He 
was not opposed to monarchy, but he believed that circum- 
stances called for a democracy in Florence. ^God alone 
will be thy king, Florence !^ exclaimed he ; ^even as He 
was king in Israel under the old covenant.' The ruling 
element in this ^city of God' was to be, not self-seeking, 
but love — love to God and love to the neighbor. ^How can 
we have peace with God if we have it not with each other ?' 
Viva Cristo, viva Firenze! responded the people to the 
proposition of the enthusiastic monk^ and, in the beginning 
of 1495, committed to him the remodeling of the state. 
With the details of the new order of things he did not, 
however, concern himself. His attitude was rather that of 
a judge in Israel, or of a Eoman censor with dictatorial 
power. He regarded himself as the organ of Christ for 
the Christocratic republic^ He guided it with his coun- 
sels, and breathed into it from his throne, the pulpit, a 
deep moral and religious earnestness. His influence over 
the people lasted for three years, and was unprecedented 
power. This is the testimony not only of the prudent 
historian Guicciardini, but of the deep-seeing Machiavelli. 
The latter ascribes his downfall to the envy of the people, 
who can never long endure the spectacle of one great char- 
acter towering above all the others. 

With the new constitution, a new spirit took possession 
of the people. Unrighteous gains were given up; deadly 
enemies embraced each other in love; secular sports came 
to an end ; vows of continence were made by husbands and 
>sdves; profane love songs gave place to hymns of love for 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 57 

Christ; artists cast their nude paintings into the fire; 
fasting became a delight; the communion was partaken of 
daily; never-wearying crowds thronged to the great cathe- 
dral, over whose pulpit were inscribed the words : 'Jesus 
Christ, the King of Florence'; committees traversed the 
city gathering up and destroying bad books, cards, and in- 
struments of music; the carnival gave place to a Palm- 
Sunday procession in which thousands of children and of 
adults, dressed in white, indulged in sacred dances and 
sang very odd christian songs, of which the following verse 
is a fair sample: 

*'Non fu mai pint bel solazzo, 
'Non fu mai pint bel solazzo, 
Piu giocondo ne maggiore, 
Che per zelo e per amore 
Di Gesu divener pazzo. 
Ognun grida com'io grido. 
Semper pazzo, pazzo, pazzo.' 

This popular excess Savonarola justified on the Mon- 
day after Holy Week, 1496, by citing the example of David 
danoing before the ark, and by the phenomena of Pentecost 
after the ascension. 

But all this was but a transient enthusiasm of an ex- 
citable populace. The general character of levity had been 



^Greater joy there never can be, 
Joy more perfect, joy more precious; 
Full of zeal and love for Jesus, — ■ 
Love that for Him, we're called crazy. 
When I shout, the mocking crowd cries, 
"Crazy I Crazy! Crazy!" 



58 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

too deeply implanted by ages of prosperity and submission 
to demagogues to be able now to assume suddenly the self- 
control and steadfastness which are so essential to a re- 
ligious and free government, and a reaction was inevitable. 
It came only too soon. The worldly spirit reasserted itself 
in the form of opposition to the monk's regime at home 
and of alliance with the pope from without. No more 
violent contrast could be imagined than the austere Savon- 
arola and the profligate and infamous popC;, Alexander VI. 
It was impossible that these two could live in peace at the 
head of neighboring states. Savonarola hesitated not to 
attack the character of the papal court as it deserved ; and 
he openly proclaimed his hope that the reform begun in 
Florence would eventually embrace the whole of Italy. 
The papal court saw the necessity of putting down so bold 
a foe. Strategy was at first resorted to. Savonarola was 
invited to come to Eome; and a cardinal's hat and the 
archbishopric of Florence were offered to him. He an- 
swered the pope in strangely prophetic words: *I desire 
none of your gifts; I will have no other red hat than that 
which you have given to other servants of Christ — the red 
hat of martyrdom.' Then Alexander commanded him to 
come to Eome. Savonarola excused himself on the ground 
of his feeble health; and he continued to preach against 
Rome. Thereupon the pope (in the autumn of 1496) for- 
bade him further preaching on pain of excommunication, 
until the termination of his trial for heresy, which was now 
to be commenced. At the same time, the jealousy of the 
Franciscan order, at the prominence of this Dominican, 
fell upon him. Savonarola ceased preaching for a time; 
but then, unable to restrain the spirit within him, recom- 
menced. ^The pope/ said he, ^is ill informed and mis- 




Uiroiamo (Jerome) Savonarola 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 59 

guided. It is not the ideal pope who has forbidden me to 
preach; the true pope is the incarnation of the spirit of 
Christ; and Christ cannot be against the spirit of love, 
otherwise He would be against Himself. This wicked 
order is, therefore, not from the pope. I must preach, 
because God has called me thereto.' So reasoned Savon- 
arola; so endeavored he to reconcile disobedience to the 
visible pope with obedience to the Catholic church. Mean- 
time political affairs took an unfavorable turn for Savon- 
arola. Charles VIII was forced to retire from Italy in 
inglorious failure. Combined Italy was hostile to Florence 
because of its alliance with the French. Also a pestilence 
and famine broke out in Florence (June, 1497), against 
which Savonarola could furnish no miraculous remedy. 
The party of the Medici made an attempt to seize the 
government; this failed, and ended with the execution 
(August twenty-one, 1497) of five prominent men. The 
avengers of their blood now watched for Savonarola's life. 
His followers now surrounded him with an armed guard, 
it was only thus that he could reach his pulpit. 

The pope, learning of the decline of Savonarola's popu- 
larity, excommunicated him, first in May, 1497, and then 
more emphatically in October, forbidding all christians to 
have any intercourse with him, and threatening the city 
with the interdict. Savonarola, encouraged by a favorable 
council which was elected January one, 1498, ascended the 
cathedral pulpit, denied the charge of heresy, declared null 
and void the excommunication, and appealed from the 
human pope to the heavenly Head of the church. He also 
boldly summoned the crowned lieads of all Christendom to 
unite in calling a general council, to depose this pretended 
pope, and to heal the wounds of the church. And yet 



60 MARTYBS IN ALL AGES. 

Savonarola plainly foresaw the fatal result to himself of 
the present contest. 'To the cause there can be no other 
outcome than victory ; but to me it will be death/ * * * 

Palm Sunday, 1498, his enemies besieged him in San 
Marco; he disdained earthly weapons, and fell upon his 
face in prayer. As he was taken and conducted to judg- 
ment he was greeted with all manner of abuse. His adher- 
ents were expelled from the council, and a hasty trial was 
entered upon. On six successive days he was dragged forth 
and examined under the severest tortures. During the few 
days of his imprisonment he wrote a beautiful exposition 
of the fifty-first Psalm, which Luther afterwards published 
as a tract. He was then examined again, by torture, before 
a clerical tribunal ; it was but a mere form. He was sen- 
tenced to be hanged and burned. He was thus executed 
with and between two of his friends, May twenty-third, 
1498. At the foot of the scaffold he had adminstered the 
eucharist to himself and his two friends. *My Lord was 
pleased to die for my sins; why should not I be glad to 
give up my poor life out of love to Him?' With such 
words he closed his eyes upon the world and yielded to the 
gibbet and the flames. 

The Dominican order endeavored in later years to effect 
his canonization. Luther said that God had already can- 
onized him. Though not a dogmatic reformer in the sense 
of Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin, Savonarola yet holds a most 
honorable place by the side of Wycliffe, Huss, and Wessel, 
as a forerunner of the great Reformation. Monuments 
were erected to Savonarola in San Marco, Florence, in 
1873, and in Ferrara, May twenty-three, 1875. Savonarola 
left numerous writings.'' 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 61 

MARTIN LUTHER 

Passing by the persecutions that followed in Bucking- 
ham, Amersham, Uibridge, Henley, Newbury, Colchester, 
and the countries of Norfolk and Suffolk, England, we 
arrive at the time of Martin Luther, who was one of the 
greatest of church reformers. His history is familiar to 
all as a reformer who could never be bought, frightened, 
or intimidated. He was bom in Germany, 1483, studied at 
the University of Erfurt and became a monk in that city. 
Afterward, in 1507, he was professor of philosophy at Wit- 
tenberg and ten years later his open opposition to the sale 
of indulgences authorized by the pope, brought storms of 
persecution down upon him, but he found friends, some of 
whom were German princes, and thus, in the providence 
of God, escaped martyrdom. 

It was said of Luther that his doctrine was true, but 
they only wished he was more moderate in his manner of 
expressing his thoughts. He was high spirited but very 
humble. To the bishop of Eome, he wrote, "Save me, 
kill me, call me, recall me, approve me, reprove me, as 
you shall please. * * * j gj^^n |jg contented to die." 
He was followed, hooted, howled at and threatened with 
banishment; his books were burned. He was reproached 
and called a factionalist and schismatic. In 1521 he at- 
tended the Diet of Worms. His friends tried to get him 
to stay at home, but he refused. "His reply was that if he 
were obliged to encounter, at Worms, as many devils as 
there were tiles upon the houses of that city, it would not 
deter him from his fixed purpose of appearing there." 

On his return he was said to be the enemy of the whole 
empire. Frederick, Duke of Saxony, seeing the storm that 



6!ffi- MARTYRS m ALL AGES. 

was coming, provided men to protect Luther. They thought 
best to conceal him ; so disguised him and put him into the 
Wartburg Castle, which he called Patmos. While there 
he wrote many things helpful to the world. He was one 
of the first and greatest heroes of the Eef ormation. 

JOHN LAMBERT 

One of Luther's admirers, John Lambert, was accused 
and brought to London for examination before the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and forty-five charges were brought 
against him. His answers to the questions showed great 
learning, through knowledge of the Scriptures, and whole- 
hearted devotion to Christ. To the second article in which 
they asked whether he "had any of Luther's books since 
they were condemned," how long he had kept them, and 
whether he had studied them, he replied, "I say that I 
have indeed had them, and that both before they were 
condemned and also since, but I never will nor can tell 
you, how long I have kept them; but the truth is that I 
have studied them, and I thank God that I did so, for by 
them has God showed to me, and also to a multitude of 
others, such light as the darkness of those that call them- 
selves the holy church cannot abide. He covets above all 
things, as all his adversaries well know, that all his writ- 
ings, and the writings of all his adversaries, might be 
translated into all languages ; that all people might see and 
know what is said on every side, by which men should the 
better judge what is the truth. And in this, I think, he 
requires nothing by equity ; for the law would have no man 
condemned, or justified, until his cause were heard and 
known/' 




Martin Luther 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 63 

John Lambert's martyrdom took place at Smithiield and 
he suffered most cruel tortures, yet, as he was dying, he 
lifted his burning, bleeding hands and cried to the people, 
"None but Christ! None but Christ!" 

ZWINGLI AND SWITZERLAND 

The Eeformation in Switzerland broke out under Ulrich 
Zwingli two years later than in Germany. Zwingli at once 
called upon his head the persecutions of the pope, but so 
faithful was his preaching that Switzerland was made a 
Protestant country within a few years. Zwingli was killed 
in 1531; but the work went on and Switzerland became 
the asylum of the oppressed for perhaps a hundred years 
or more; however, two hundred years later it was decreed 
that any one withdrawing from the Established church 
should not be tolerated; and that any who might attend 
the services of the "new religion" should be fined or im- 
prisoned ; and we find much the same conditions existed in 
America at that date. Those who persisted in their faith- 
fulness to Christ and in their opposition to the old church, 
were dubbed "enthusiasts," "Nazarenes," and "advocates of 
exploded doctrines." 

The Eeformation was carried to France in 1523, by 
Luther's followers, where it gained rapidly for a time 
among the upper classes. John Calvin, a Frenchman, the 
founder of Calvinism, taking up with the Eeformation, 
was driven out of France and fled to Switzerland where he 
became the head of Swiss Protestantism, six years after 
Zwingli's death. He continued a leader to his death and 
became the greatest writer of the age on theology. How- 
ever, the end of his life is clouded by the part he took. 



64 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

as moderater, in the burning of a Spanish scholar who dis- 
sented from the reformed religion. One of his biographers, 
commenting upon this inhuman act, excuses him upon the 
ground that burning at the stake was the fault of the age, 
to which he fell a victim. 

HENRY VOES AND JOHN ESCH 

"In A. D. 1523, two young men were burnt at Brussels, 
one named Henry Voes, at the age of twenty-four years; 
the other John Esch, who formerly had been of the order 
of the Augustine friars. * * * They were condemned 
to be burned. Then they began to give thanks to God, 
their heavenly Father, who had delivered them through 
Hi& great goodness from that false and abominable priest- 
hood, and made them priests of His holy order, receiving 
them to Himself as a sacrifice of sweet odor. * * * As 
they were led to the place of execution, * * * they 
went joyfully and cheerfully, making continual protestation 
that they died for the glory of God, and the doctrine of the 
gospel, as true christians, believing and following the holy 
church of the Son of God ; saying also, that it was the day 
which they had long desired. After they were come to the 
place where they were to be burned, and were despoiled of 
their garments, * * * ^hey joyfully embraced the 
stake to which they were to be bound, patiently and joy- 
fully enduring whatever was done to them, praising God 
with — ^e praise thee, God,' etc., singing Psalms, and 
rehearsing the creed, in testimony of their faith. A cer- 
tain doctor beholding their cheerfulness, said to Henry, 
that he should not so foolishly glorify himself. He an- 
swered, 'God forbid that I should glory in anything, but 
only in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ.' Another coun- 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 65 

selled him to have God before his eyes. He answered, 'I 
trust that I carry Him truly in my heart.* One of them 
seeing that fire was kindled at his feet, said, ^Methinks ye 
do strew roses under my feet/ Finally, the smoke and 
the flame mounting up to their faces choked them. 

Henry being demanded among other things, whether 
Luther had seduced him or no? ^Yea/ said he, 'even as 
Christ seduced His apostles.'" 

HENRY SUTPHEN, MONK 

^'The year following the burning, at Brussels, of these 
two christian martyrs just mentioned, with like tyranny 
also, was martyred and burned, without being justly con- 
demned, near the city of Diethmar, on the border of Ger- 
many, one Henry Sutphen, monk, A. D. 1524. This Sut- 
phen had been with Martin Luther, and going to Antwerp 
-was excluded from thence for the gospel's sake, then went 
^o Bremen, not to preach, but to go to Wittenberg. Whilst 
;at Bremen, he was asked by certain godly citizens to make 
•one or two brief exhortations upon the gospel. So sincerely 
■did he preach and so taken were the honest people with his 
words, that the religious orders, especially the canons, 
monks and priests rose up against him, demanding that he 
■desist from promulgating his heresies, asking even that the 
senate banish such a heretic from the town. 

The citizens of Bremen took their preacher's part, as did 
also the senate, saying it could not find any reason for 
which Sutphen should be convicted of heresy. Upon this 
the religious orders, seeing that they could not prevail, 
burst into a fury and certified to the archbishop that the 
citizens of Bremen were become heretics. Demand was 
then made, that Sutphen be handed over to the archbishop 



66 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

without delay ; this being refused by the citizens of Bremen, 
a provincial council of all the prelates and learned men of 
the diocese was called at Buckstade, to which Sutphen also 
was called, although they had already decreed to proceed 
against him as against a heretic; wherefore the rulers of 
the city, together with the commonality detained him at 
home, foreseeing and suspecting malice of the council. 

In October, 1524, Sutphen was sent for by Nicholas Boy, 
parish priest, and other faithful christians of Meldorph, 
a town in Diethmar, to preach the gospel to them. Alarmed 
by the power of God upon Sutphen, the prior of the Black 
Friars, at Meldorph, not being able to withstand him, 
went with great speed to Heida, to speak with the forty- 
eight presidents of the country, against the seditious monk 
who, he charged, would seduce all the people of Diethmar 
as he had done those of Bremen. These presidents decreed 
that the monk should be put to death, without being heard 
or seen, much less convicted. When notified of this, Sut- 
phen boldly replied that he ought to obey the word of God 
rather than man and if it pleased God that he should lose 
his life there, it was as near to Heaven as any other place. 
The next day he went into the pulpit and preached twice 
with great spirit and power. 

This open defiance, tlie ecclesiastics could not brook in 
silence; so disdaining all temperate means of silencing 
the preacher they finally determined to take Sutphen by 
night and burn him before the people should know of it. 

They assembled, therefore, about five hundred men whom 
they instmcted in what was to be done; for before that, 
none but the presidents knew the reason for their assem- 
bling. When the husbandmen understood it, they would 
]:ave turned back^ refusing such a detestable and horrible 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. W 

deed ; but the presidents constrained them with most bitter 
threats ; and, in order that they should be the more cour- 
ageous, gave them three barrels of Hamburg beer. 

About midnight they reached Meldorph having with 
them a traitor, named Hennegus, by whose treason they 
had perfect knowledge of everything. They burst into the 
house of the parish priest with violence. If they found 
either gold or silver they took it; they fell violently upon 
the priest; then with great rage and fury attacked Sut- 
phen, bound his hands behind him and drew him to and 
fro until Peter Hannus, who otherwise was an unmerciful 
and cruel persecutor of the word of God, asked them to let 
him alone. When they asked him why he came to Dieth- 
mar, he gently told them, but they cried out in a rage, 
'Away with him; away with him! If we hear him talk 
any longer, it is to be feared that he will make us also 
heretics.' 

They then carried him to Hieda and bound him with 
chains and stocks. The master of the house seeing the 
cruel deed felt compassion and had him carried to a priest's 
house for the night, while the common people continued in 
immoderate drinking. In the morning they gathered in the 
market-place, to consult as to what should be done ; where 
the rustics, boiling with drink, cried out, 'Bum him ! burn 
him ! To the fire with the heretic !' 

Then, with great noise, they brought him forth, where 
he sat down for weakness upon the ground. There was 
present one of the presidents, named May, who condemned 
Sutphen to be burned; but the preacher, lifting up his 
hands toward Heaven, said, 'Oh Lord, forgive them, for 
they offend ignorantly, not knowing what they do; Thy 
name, almighty God, is holy.' 



68 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

In the meantime a woman, a sister of Hannus, offered 
herself to suffer a thousand stripes, and to give a large sum 
of money, if they would stay the burning and keep him 
in prison until she could plead his cause before the whole 
country. Upon hearing this they grew more mad, threw 
the woman down, trod upon her and beat Sutphen unmer- 
cifully. One struck him on the head with a sharp dagger ; 
others thrust him in the back. This was not done only 
once or twice, but as often as he began to speak. Master 
Gunter cried out, encouraging them, paying, ^Go to, boldly, 
good fellows ; truly God is present with us.^ 

After this they brought a Franciscan Friar to Sutphen 
that he might confess to him. Sutphen asked him: 
^Brother, when have I done you an injury, either by word 
or deed ; or when did I ever provoke you to anger ?' 'Never,' 
said the friar. 'What then shall I confess to you that you 
think you might forgive me?' said he. The friar was so 
affected by these words that he turned away. They then 
bound Sutphen to a ladder and when he began to pray, 
struck him upon the face, saying, 'Thou shalt first be 
burnt, and afterwards pray and prate as much as thou 
wilt.' The ladder was then set upright; but he was mur- 
dered by their drunken violence before he was burned. 
Thus this godly preacher finished his martyrdom, A. D. 
1524. 

About this time many godly persons were thrown into 
the Ehine and into other rivers. In the town of Diethmar, 
another faithful saint of God was burned. Thus these 
men, as shining lights, set up by God in testimony of His 
truth, offered up the sacrifice of their lives, sealed with 
their blood, as a sweet savor unto God." 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 69 

JOHN CLERK OF MELDEN^ FRANCE 

"Melden is a city in France, ten miles from Paris, where 
John Clerk was apprehended, A. D. 1523, for setting up 
upon the church door, a writing against the pope's pardons 
lately sent there from Eome, in which he named the pope 
to be antichrist; for which his punishment was this — that 
for three several days he should be whipped, and afterwards 
have a mark branded on his forehead, as a note of in- 
famy. * * * 

After this punishment John went to Metz. * * * 
The people of that city used to go, on a certain day, to 
the suburbs, to worship certain blind idols near by, after 
an old custom amongst them. John, being inflamed with 
zeal, went out of the city on the preceding day to the place 
where the images were, and broke them all in pieces. The 
next day, when the canons, priests, and monks, * * * 
found all their blocks and stocks broken upon the ground, 
they were enraged and seized John Clerk, who confessed 
the act. The people being not yet acquainted with that 
kind of doctrine, were wonderfully moved against him. 
* * * He was soon tried and condemned and led to 
the place of execution, and sustained extreme, various and 
ingenious torments. To all those who stood by it was an 
horror to behold the grievous and doleful sight of his 
pain; again, to behold his patience, or rather the grace of 
God giving him the power to endure, was a wonder. Thus 
quietly and constantly he endured his torments, pronounc- 
ing or in a manner singing, the verses of the hundred and 
fifteenth Psalm: ^Their idols are silver and gold, the 
work of men's hands,' etc. His rent body was committed 
to the fire and consumed." 



70 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

JOHN" CASTELLANE 

In 1524, John Castellane, a priest and St. Augustine 
Friar, who had become a true preacher of God and had laid 
some foundation of the doctrine of the gospel in the town 
of Metz; when returning from thence, was taken prisoner 
and carried to the castle of Nommenie, where he was most 
cruelly handled from May until January, 1525, during all 
of which time he continued true to the Son of God. 

Thence he wa& carried to the castle of Vike where the 
cardinals proceeded to the sentence of his degradation. As 
the form of the sentence and the process of degradation is 
remarkable we annex it in part, as follows: "Concerning 
the process inquisitory, formed and given in the form of 
an accusation against thee, John Castellane ; * * * 
and marking also the godly admonitions and charitable 
exhortations which we made unto thee in the town of Metz, 
which thou^ like unto the adder, hast refused; * * * 
also considering thine answer to interrogatories, * * * 
in which thou hast devilishly hidden and kept back, not 
only the truth, but also_, following the example of Cain, 
hast refused to confess thy sins and mischievous offenses, 
and, finally, hearing the great number of witnesses sworn 
and examined against thee, the inquisitor hath entered 
process against thee; * * * whereby it appeareth 
that thou, John Castellane, hast oftentimes, and in divers 
places, openly and manifestly spread abroad and taught 
many erroneous propositions, full of the heresy of Luther, 
contrary and against the Catholic faith, and the verity of 
the gospel and the holy apostolic see, and so accursedly 
looked back, that thou art found to be a liar before Al- 
mighty God. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. Yl 

It is ordained by the sacred rules of the canon law, that 
such as, through the sharp darts of their venomous tongues 
do pervert the Scriptures, should be punished. For these 
causes and others we pronounce thee to be excommunicated 
with the greatest excommunication, and a mortal enemy 
of the Catholic faith and truth of the gospel; also to be 
a manifest heretic, the follower and partaker of the ex- 
ecrable cruelty of Martin Luther, a stirrer up of old heresies 
already condemned. Therefore, thou oughtest to be deposed 
and deprived of all priestly honor and dignity, of all thy 
orders, of thy shaving and religious habit. So we do de- 
pose, deprive and separate thee, as a rotten member, from 
the communion and company of all the faithful ; and being 
so deprived, we judge that thou oughtest to be actually 
degraded. 

This sentence being thus ended, the bishop, sitting in 
his robes on the judgment seat, proceeded to the degrading, 
as they called it, of John Castellane. He was appareled 
in his priestly attire and brought forth from the chapel, 
where he knelt down before the bishop. Then the officers 
gave him the chalice; with wine and water, the patina and 
the host; all of which the bishop took from him saying, 
^We take away from thee, or command to be taken from 
thee, all power to offer sacrifice unto God, and to say massy 
as well for the quick as the dead.' 

Moreover the bishop scraped the nails of both his hands 
with a piece of glass, saying, 'By this scraping we take 
from thee all power to sacrifice, to consecrate, and to bless, 
which thou hast received by the anointing of thy hands/ 
Then he took the chalice, saying, 'We deprive thee of this 
priestly ornament, which signifies charity; for certainly 
thou hast forsaken the same^ and all innocency.' 



72 MART'^ES IN ALL A(JES. 

The degradation of the order of the priesthood being 
ended, they proceeded to the order of deacon. The min- 
isters gave him the book of the gospels which the bishop 
took away, saying, *We take away from thee all power to 
read the gospels in the church of God, for it appertains 
only to such as are worthy.' After this he despoiled him 
of the vesture used in the various Levitical orders, down 
to the door-keeper, taking from him the keys, and forbid- 
ding him to open or shut the vestry or to ring any more 
bells in the church. 

That done the bishop committed him to the servitude 
and ignominy of the secular state. He then took the 
shears and, clipping his hair said, *We cast thee out, as an 
unthankful child of the Lord's heritage.' * * * i^^q 
bishop also added these words: ^That which thou hast 
sung with thy mouth, thou hast not believed with thy heart, 
nor accomplished in work, wherefore we take from thee 
the office of singing in the church of God.' 

He was then stripped of his clerical robe and the apparel 
of a secular man put upon him. That done, the bishop 
said, *We pronounce that the secular court shall receive 
thee unto its charge.' He was thus degraded of all honor 
and privilege. 

He then, after a fashion, entreated the secular judge for 
Castellane, saying, 'My Lord Judge, we pray you as heartily 
as we can, for the love of God, and for His tender pity and 
mercy, and for respect of our prayers, that you will not 
in any point do anything that shall be hurtful to this mis- 
erable man, or tending to his death, or the maiming of 
his body.' 

The judge then condemned Ca&tellane to be burned; 
which death he suffered with such firmness that many per- 




John Lambert 



(See page 62,) 



A iPEtlSEOUTED PEOPLE. 73 

sons who had some knowledge of the truth were greatly 
edified by his triumphant death." 

WOLFGANG SCHUCH, A GERMAN 

"Wolfgang Schuch, the pastor of a small town in Ger- 
many, labored there to extirpate idolatry and superstition; 
which, through the power of God, he did ; so that the ob- 
servance of Lent, images, and all idols, with the abomina- 
tions of mass were utterly abolished. 

Ere long sinister reports of this came to Duke Anthony, 
prince of Lorraine; which so incensed him that he threat- 
ened to destroy the town with sword and fire. Wolfgang, 
learning of this, wrote the duke's uncle, in defense both 
of his ministry and of his doctrine. 

But this epistle availed nothing ; so he took all the dan- 
ger upon himself; went to Nantz and was immediately 
cast into prison, where he was roughly handled for a 
whole year ; then removed to the house of the Gray Friars, 
learnedly disputing all who stood against him. One of 
these friars, an enemy to virtue and learning, and believ- 
ing that it was sufficient to salvation, to know the Pater 
Noster (Our Father) and Ava Maria (Hail Mary), was 
the judge before whom Wolfgang was examined. At the 
last disputation Duke Anthony was present, having altered 
his apparel so that he might not be known ; and, although 
he could not understand Wolfgang, who spoke in Latin, 
perceiving him to be bold and firm in his doctrine, gave 
sentence that he should be burned because he denied the 
church and the sacrifices of the mass. 

Wolfgang hearing his sentence began to sing the one hun- 
dred and twenty-second Psalm. His Bible, with his mar- 
ginal notes, was taken into their monastery and burned. He 



'^4 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

was then taken to the place of his martyrdom and upon 
being asked if he would have his pain diminished and 
shortened, he answered, ^No, as God has been with me 
hitherto, so I trust now He will not leave me, when I 
shall have most need of Him ;' and beginning to sing the 
fifty-first Psalm^ he entered into the place, heaped with 
fagots and wood, and continued to sing until the smoke 
and flame took from him both voice and lif e/^ 

GEORGE CARPENTER 

"On the eighth of February, A. D. 1527, George Car- 
penter of Emering was burned in Munchen, in Bavaria. 

He was asked, ^Dost thou not fear the death and pun- 
ishment which thou must suffer? If thou wert let go, 
wouldst thou return to thy wife and children?' He an- 
swered, 'If I were at liberty, whither should I rather go 
than to my wife and beloved children?' 'Revoke your 
former opinion and you shall be set at liberty.' George 
answered, 'My wife and my children are so dearly beloved 
by me, that they cannot be bought from me for all the 
riches and possessions of the Duke of Bavaria; but, for 
the love of the Lord God, I will willingly forsake them.' 
When he was led to the place of execution, the school- 
master spake to him again, sajdng, 'Good George, believe 
in the sacrament of the altar; do not affirm it to be only 
a sign.' He answered, 'I believe this sacrament to be a 
sign of the body of Jesus Christ offered upon the cross 
for us.' Then said the schoolmaster, 'What dost thou 
mean, that thou dost so little esteem baptism, knowing 
that Christ suffered Himself to be baptized in Jordan? 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLfi. *it6 

He answered, explaining the true use of baptism, and the 
reason why Christ was baptized and how necessary it 
was that Christ should die and suffer upon the cross. 
'The same Christ/ said he, Vill I confess this day before 
the whole world; for He is my Savior, and in Him I 
believe/ * * * 

The schoolmaster said, 'Dost thou believe so truly and 
constantly in the Lord and God with thy heart, as thou 
dost cheerfully seem to confess Him with thy mouth ?' He 
answered, 'It were a very hard matter for me, if I, who am 
ready here to suffer death, should not believe that with 
my heart, which I openly profess with my mouth; for I 
knew before I must suffer persecution if I would cleave 
unto Christ, who saith, 'Where thy treasure is, there will 
thy heart be also.' 

Then said Master Conrate to him, 'Dost thou think it 
necessary after thy death, that any man should pray for 
thee, or say mass for thee ?' He answered, 'So long as the 
soul is joined to the body, pray God for me, * * * but 
when the soul is separate from the body, then I have no 
more need of your prayers.' 

Then he was desired by certain christian brethren, that, 
as soon as he was cast into the fire, he should give some 
sign and token of what his faith was. He answered, 
'This shall be my sign and token, that so long as I can 
open my mouth, I will not cease to call upon the name 
of Jesus.' 

Incredible constancy was in this godly man. His face 
and countenance never changed color, but he went cheer- 
fully on to the fire. 'In the midst of the town this day/ 
said he, 'will I confess my God before the whole world.' 
When he was laid upon the ladder, and after the exe- 



^6 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

cutioner had put a bag of gunpowder about his neck, he 
said, *Let it be so, in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Q^host.' When they thrust him 
into the fire, he with a loud voice cried out, 'Jesus, 
Jesus P'^ 

LEONARD KEYSER 

"Here is not to be passed over the wonderful con- 
stancy of Leonard Keyser, of Bavaria. This man being 
at his study in Wittenberg, was sent for by his brethren, 
who told him, that if he ever wished to see his father 
alive, he should come with speed, which he did. Almo&t 
as soon as he appeared outside, he was seized, by com- 
mand of the bishop of Passau. 

Sentence was given against him that he should be de- 
graded, and put into the hands of the secular power. He 
was led out of town to the place where he wa& to suffer, 
where he boldly spake, saying, 'Oh, Jesus, I am Thine! 
have mercy upon me and save me.' Then he felt the fire 
begin sharply under his feet, and about his head; and, 
because the fire was not quick enough, the executioner 
drew the body, half burnt, with a long hook, from under 
the wood, made a great hole in it, through which he 
thrust a stake, and cast him again into the fire. This 
was on August sixteenth, A. D. 1526.'^ 

COUNCIL OF BLOOD 

"About 1567 there was organized in the Netherlands, a 
tribunal known as the Council of Blood. The Duke of 
Alva was governor general under Philip II at that time 
and such a career of crime and blood cannot be paralleled. 
An edict was procured from the Inquisition by which all 




Executions in l-lollan^ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 77 

people of the Netherlands, except those specifically exempt, 
were sentenced to death. Nobles were beheaded and 
heretics burned at the &take. It was not uncommon to see 
scores of them hanging like rabbits from the trees. 

Under this reign of blood the most flourishing country 
of Europe fell prostrate. Grass and weeds grew rank 
around the richest wharves and marts-. Alva boasted that 
he put to death, in the Netherlands, eighteen thousand 
persons besides those killed in battle.'* 

WENDELMUTA, A WIDOW 

"In Holland also in the year 1527, was martyred and 
burned a good and virtuous widow, named Wendelmuta. 
This widow, receiving to her heart the brightness of God's 
grace, by the appearing of the gospel, wa& committed to 
the castle of Werden. * * * Several monks were ap- 
pointed to talk with her, that they might convince her 
and win her to recant; but she constantly persisting in 
the truth, would not be moved. Many of her kindred 
were suffered to reason with her; among whom there was 
a noble matron, who loved and favored dearly the widow 
in prison. This matron coming and communing with her, 
said, *My Wendelmuta, why dost thou not keep silence, 
and think secretly in thine heart these things which thou 
believest, that thou mayest prolong here thy days and 
life?' She answered, *Ah, you know not what you say. 
It is written, ^ith the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion.' Eomans 10 :10. * * * She was condemned, by 
sentence as an heretic, to be burned to ashes, and her goods 
to be confiscated. * * * 



^8 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

After she came to the pkce where she was to be exe- 
cuted a monk had brought out a cross, desiring her to 
kiss and worship her god<. 'I worship/ said she, 'no 
wooden god, but only that God who is in Heaven;' and 
so, with a joyful countenance she went to the stake. Then, 
taking the powder and laying it to her breast, she gave 
her neck willingly to be bound, and with ardent prayer, 
commended herself to the hands of God. * * * The 
fire then was put to the wood and she, being strangled, 
was burned afterward to ashes." 

JOHN PISTORIUS^ A LEARNED MAN OF HOLLAND 

"Pistorius was a priest; then he married, and after that 
he preached again&t the mass and pardons, and against 
the subtle abuses of priests. He was committed to prison 
with ten malefactors, whom he comforted; and to one, 
who being half naked and in danger of cold, he gave his 
gown. His father, visiting him in prison, did not dissuade 
him, but bade him be constant. At last he was con- 
demned and degraded, having a fool's coat put upon him. 
His fellow prisoners, at his death, sung, 'We praise thee,' 
etc." Coming to the stake, he was first strangled, and 
then burned, saying, at his death, "0 death, where is thy 
sting? grave, where is thy victory?" I Corinthians 
15:15. 

TWENTY-EIGHT MARTYRED AT LOUVAINE, 1543 

''When some of the city of Louvaine were suspected of 
Lutheranism, the emperor's procurator came from Brussels 
to make inquisitiori. After inquisition, bands of armed 
men came and beset their houses in the night; inany y^eiQ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 79 

taken in their beds, plucked from their wives and children, 
and divided into different prisons. Through terror, many 
citizens returned again to idolatry ; but there were twenty- 
eight who remained con&tant in that persecution. The 
doctors of Louvaine, especially the inquisitor, came and 
disputed with them, thinking either to confound them, or 
to convert them. But the spirit of the Lord wrought so 
strongly with His saints that they went away rather con- 
founded themselves. 

Among them there was one Paul, a priest. * * * But 
at length, for ffear of death he began to stagger in his con- 
fession, and so was condemned to perpetual prison, in 
a dark and stinking dungeon, where he was suffered 
neither to read nor to write, nor any man to come to 
him, and only to be fed with bread and water. There 
were two others put to the fire and burnt. There was 
an old man and two aged women condemned; the man to 
be beheaded, the two women to be burned alive, which 
death they suffered very cheerfully. Other prisoners who 
were not condemned to death, were deprived of their goods, 
and commanded to come to the church in a white sheet, 
and there, kneeling with a taper in their hand, to ask 
forgiveness; and they who refused to do so and to abjure 
the doctrine of Luther, were put to the fire.'^ 

JUSTUS JUSBURGH AND GILES TILLEMAN, AT BRUSSELS^ 
A. D. 1544 

"Justus Jusburgh, a skinner of Louvaine, being sus- 
pected of Lutheranism, was found to have the New Testa- 
ment in his house, and certain sermons of Luther, for 
which he was committed. * * * The providence of the 
Lord is never wanting to His saints in time of necessity. 



80 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Shortly after, the masters of Louvaine came to examine 
him touching religion, on the pope's supremacy, Bacrifice 
of the mass, purgatory, and the sacrament. When he had 
answered plainly and boldly according to the Scriptures 
he was condemned to the fire; but, through intercession 
made to the queen, his burning was pardoned, and he was 
only beheaded. 

Giles (Tilleman) was bom in Brussels of honest par- 
ents. He began to receive the light of the gospel through 
reading the Holy Scriptures, and increased therein ex- 
ceedingly. And as he was fervent in zeal, so he was hu- 
mane, mild, and pitiful. Whatever he had, that necessity 
could spare, he gave to the poor, and lived by his trade. 
Some he refreshed with meat; some with clothing; to 
some he gave shoes ; some he helped with household stuff ; 
to others he ministered wholesome exhortation of good 
doctrine. One poor woman was brought to bed, and had 
no bed to lie upon, whereupon he brought his own bed to 
her, and was contented himself to lie upon straw. 

After he was thrown into prison, certain of the Gray 
Friars were sometimes sent to him; but he would always 
desire them to depart from him, and when the friars at 
any time called him names, he held his peace at such 
personal injuries, that those blasphemers would say abroad 
that he had a dumb devil in him. But when they talked 
of religion, there he spared not, but answered them fully 
by evidences of the Scripture, so that many times they 
would depart wondering. At various times he might have 
escaped, the doors having been set open, but he would not 
bring his keeper into peril. 

He was condemned to the fire, privately, contrary to 
the use of the country; for they durst not openly con- 



A PEHSECUTED PEOPLE. 81 

demn him for fear of the people, so well was he beloved. 
When tidings of his sentence came to. him, he gave hearty 
tlianks unto God that the hour was come when he might 
glorify the Lord. 

Standing at the stake, the blessed martyr, lifting up 
his eyes to heaven, died, in the middle of the flame, to the 
great lamentation of all. So that after that time, when 
the friars would go about for their alms the people would 
say, *It was not meet for them to receive alms with bloody 
hands.' " 

PERSECUTION AT GHENT AND BRUSSELS, A. D. 1543, 1544 

"When the Emperor, Charles V, was in Ghent, the 
friars and doctors petitioned that the edict, made against 
the Lutherans', might be read openly twice a year; which 
being obtained, great persecution followed, so that there 
was no city nor town in all Flanders where some were not 
banished or beheaded, or condemned to perpetual prison, 
or had not their goods confiscated; neither was there any 
respect of age or sex. 

Afterwards, the emperor coming to Brussels, there was 
terrible slaughter and persecution of God's people in 
Brabant, Hennegow, and Artoise; the horror and cruelty 
of which is almost incredible ; so that at one time as good 
as two hundred men and women together were brought 
out of the country into the city, of whom some were 
drowned, some buried alive, some privately made away 
with, and others sent to perpetual prison." 

Charles V abdicated the imperial crown in 1556 and 
retired to a monastery in Spain, where he died two years 
later, a most miserable death. "The way of the trans- 
gressor is hard." 



82 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

URSULA AND MARIA^ AT DELDEN^ A. D. 1545 

"Delden is a town in lower Germany, three miles from 
Daventry, where these two virgins of noble parentage were 
burned. After diligently frequenting churches, hearing 
sermons, and being instructed in the word of the Lord, 
they believed that, as the benefit of salvation comes only 
by our faith in Christ, all the merchandise of the pope, 
which he sells to the people for money, was needless. Mary, 
being the younger, was put first into the fire; where she 
prayed ardently for her enemies and commended her soul 
to God. The judges greatly marveled at her constancy. 

Then they exhorted Ursula to turn, or if she would not, 
at least, that she would require to be beheaded. She said 
that she was guilty of no error, nor defended anything but 
what was consonant to the Scripture in which she trusted 
to persevere to the end. And, as to the kind of punish- 
ment, she said she feared not the fire, and rather would 
follow the example of her sister that went before." 

ANDREW THIESSEN AND FAMILY^ AT MECHLIN, A. D. 1545 

'^Andrew Thiessen, citizen of Mechlin, had three sons 
and a daughter whom he instructed diligently in the doc- 
trine of the gospel, and despised the doings of popery. 
Being hated and persecuted of the friars and priests there, 
he went to England, and there died. Francis and Nicholas, 
his two sons, went to Germany to study; and returning 
again to their mother, sister and younger brother, by dili- 
gent instruction brought them to the right knowledge of 
God's gospel; the parson there, taking counsel together 
with William de Clerk, the head magistrate of the town 
of Mechlin, and others, agreed that the mother, with her 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 83 

four children, should be sent to prison ; where great labor 
was employed to reclaim them to their church. The two 
younger, being not yet settled either in years or doctrine, 
inclined to them and were delivered. The mother, who 
would not consent, was condemned to perpetual prison. 
The other two, Francis and Nicholas, standing firmly to 
their confession, defended that the Catholic church was 
not the church of Eome ; and that the sacrament was to be 
ministered in both kinds. * * * *Their Master,' they 
said, Vas Christ, which bore His cross before.' Friends 
they had innumerable, dispersed in all places. 

At last they were brought to the judges : * * * and 
condemned to be burned. Coming to the place of execu- 
tion, as they began to exhort the people, gags were thrust 
into their mouths, which they, through vehemency in 
speaking, thrust out again, desiring, for the Lord's sake, 
that they might have leave to speak. And so, singing with 
a loud voice, *I believe in one God,' etc., they were fastened 
to the stake, praying for their persecutors, and exhorting 
one another to bear the fire patiently. The one feeling 
the flame to come to his beard; 'Ah!' said he, Vhat a 
small pain is this, to be compared to the glory to come !' " 
Thus the patient martyrs committed their spirits to the 
hand of God. 

JOHN JOYER^ AND HIS SERVANT^ AT TOULOUSE^ 1552 

"These two, coming from Geneva to their country with 
certain books, were apprehended and brought to Toulouse, 
where the master was first condemned. * * * When 
they were brought to the stake, the young man first going 
up, began to weep. The master, fearing lest he would give 



84 MARTYRS IN- ALL AGES. 

o\er, ran to him, and he was comforted and they began 
to sing. * * * 

As they were in the fire, the master, standing upright 
to the stake, shifted the fire from him to his servant, being 
more careful for him than for himself, and when he saw 
him dead, bowed down into the flame, and so expired." 

A CONGREGATION PERSECUTED IN PARIS 

"On September fourth, 1558, a company of three or 
four hundred people, assembled in Paris to celebrate the 
Lord^s supper, was discovered by certain priests^ who beset 
the house, and made an outcry, that the watch might 
come to take them. In a short time almost the whole city 
was in arms, thinking some conspiracy on foot. 

Upon learning that these people were Lutherans, the 
citizens were in a rage; furiously seeking their blood, 
stopping the streets and lanes with carts, and making 
fires to see that none should escape. 

The congregation went to prayer. God heard and an- 
swered and the men who had. weapons, with one excep- 
tion, escaped. The king's attorney, with the sergeants-, 
entered the house where were the women and children, 
and proceeding in their office took them all to prison. The 
people along the way despitefully abused them, tearing 
their garments and disfiguring their faces with mud and 
dirt. 

Besides these wrongs and oppressions there followed 
the cruel and glanderous reports of the priests, who in 
their railing sermons uttered horrible falsehoods and cal- 
umnies against them. These rumors were no sooner given 
out, but they were received and spread, not only among 
the vulgar but among the court and to the king's ears. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 85 

Here the enemies began to triumph, thinking the gospel 
overthrown forever. On the other side there was perplexity 
among the brethren. However, they did not lose courage 
altogether, but exhorted one another, remembering the 
great favor and providence of God in delivering them &o 
wonderfully out of danger. 

While these faithful brethren were comforting each 
other in prison : their adversaries were not idle, but sought 
all possible means to hasten their execution. Finally a 
commission was appointed and councilors chosen to over- 
see the matter. Many of these afflicted people were brought 
forth to martyrdom.^' 

ITALIAN" MARTYRS 

The Reformation of Luther spread to Italy a& wdl as 
throughout all Christendom, and, in due time bore fruit 
in a harvest of martyrs, although the number who suf- 
fered in that country does not seem to be numerous, yet it 
includes many noteworthy names. Within two years after 
the appearance of his writings* against the sale of indul- 
gences, Luther's works and writings began to appear in 
Italy. 

In 1519, John Froben, a celebrated printer of Basle, 
endorsed Luther in the warmest terms and immediately 
republished his works from his own press and sent six 
hundred copies into France and Spain, where they were 
received with favor by the learned, as well as in Italy. 
However, it is doubtful if the reformation would have 
progressed far in Italy had Luther's doctrines remained 
disclosed only to the learned. 

God arranged differently, and in 1530, a Bible for the 
people was published by Antonio Brucioli, a native of 



86 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Florence, which did much to disseminate the new religion 
among the Italians. It was, however, not nntil twelve 
years later, 1542, that the pope was sufficiently aroused 
from political wrangles he was carrying on with his for- 
eign opponents, to take alarm at the wide-spreading heresy. 

Then, commenced a series of persecutions rivaling what 
the devil was prosecuting against the real followers of 
Christ in every country where His truth was championed. 
Among those who suffered martyrdom was Jayme Enzinas, 
a noble spirit who was martyred in 1546, at Eome, being 
burned at the stake. 

Four years later, 1550, Faninus was strangled, at Eome; 
after suffering the most distressing tortures at the hands 
of the Catholics. His body was burned to ashes the same 
day. With such Holy Ghost unction did he plead that his 
executioner wept before strangling him^ The same year 
Dominick de Basana suffered martyrdom at thirty years of 
age in the city of Placentia by being hanged after heartily 
preaching and praying for his enemies. In 1551 Galeazius 
Trecius was burned at the stake, in 1553, Dr. John Mol- 
lus, a Gray Friar, was first hanged and then his body was 
burned, together with a weaver who stood constant with 
him to the end. 

The same year Francis Gamba was strangled, at the 
stake, and two years later Pomponius Algieurius, a student 
of great promise of the University of Padua, was burnt 
alive at Rome, bringing consternation down upon the car- 
dinals who beheld this awful scene. Thus some of the 
sufferings and martyrdoms of these heroes of the cross in 
Italy have been told, but the atrocities perpetrated upon 
the defenceless inhabitants of Calabria surpass anything 
hitherto recorded. 




i:.xecutions in Calabria 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 87 

BARBARITIES IN CALABRIA 

In Calabria eighty-eight persons, one after anotlier, were 
taken out and killed. A spectacle so tragical is almovst in- 
credible; wherefore, is here annexed part of an epistle, 
sent from Montallo, in Calabria, bearing date June eleven, 
1560; as follows: 

"I have to inform you of the dreadful justice which 
began to be executed on these Lutherans early this morn- 
ing. I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter of so 
many sheep. 

They were all shut up in one house and then the execu- 
tioner brought out one of them, covered his face with a 
napkin, led him to a field near by and causing him to 
kneel down, cut his throat. Then taking off the bloody 
napkin, he brought out another, whom he put to death in 
the same manner. In this way the eighty-eight men were 
butchered. I leave you to figure for yourself the awful 
spectacle; for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I 
write ; nor was there any person, who, after witnessing the 
execution of one, could stand to look on a second. 

The meekness and patience with which they went to 
martyrdom was incredible. Some of them at death pro- 
fessed to be of the same faith with us, but the greater 
part died in their cursed obstinacy. Wagons are already 
come to carry away the dead bodies which are to be quar- 
tered and hung up on the public roads from one end of 
Calabria to the other. 

Unless his holiness command the governor of this prov- 
ince to stay his hand, he will go on multiplying the exe- 
cution until he ha^ destroyed the whole." 



88 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

PETER WALDO AND THE WALDENSES 

About 1160, Peter Waldo, a citizen of Lyons and a man 
of great wealth, was convicted of God's Holy Spirit ; where- 
upon followed a very great change in his life. He began 
to give to the needy ; to instruct his family in God's word 
and to admonish others to repent. 

Because of his diligent teachings and his wholesale 
admonitions, the bishop threatened to excommunicate him. 
When he ignored their threats, they persecuted him and 
his followers with sword, prison and banishment till they 
had driven them out of the city^ From this time they 
were called the Waldenses, or poor men of Lyons, but as 
the cross follows the true and sincere preaching of God's 
word they were not suffered to remain at rest. They were 
dispersed to various places. Many went to Bohemia. A 
company settled in the Piedmont Valley in Northwest 
Italy, where they lived quietly for a few years; when the 
pope determined upon their banishment, declaring that he 
would not permit so rebellious a people to remain within 
his domains. 

Then followed for more than r, century the most hor- 
rible and cruel persecutions until they asked to quit Pied- 
mont and go into exile. Their proposal was accepted; 
but, instead, many were massacred and the survivors, 
numbering over twelve thousand, were thrown into prison, 
where they were treated in a most barbarous manner. 
Here disease and torture soon diminished their number to 
three thousand. 

At length being permitted to go, they reached Geneva in 
the middle of December, 1686. It was painful to behold 
these people, assembled, for the first time since they were 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 89 

dragged from their homes; parents and children inquiring 
for each other, husbands and wives seeking for those 
dearest to them; but, for the most part in vain. More 
than three-fourths had perished in prison or on the way 
to the place of refuge. 

Great persecution was stirred up against those who re- 
mained in France, by the pope's commissioners. This 
was followed up with great expense and labor and sealed 
with the blood of many of them. Never was persecution, 
more terrible, perpetrated upon any people than in France 
by the French king up to A. D. 1545. 

History tells us that persecution against the Walden&es 
continued almost uninterruptedly until the middle of the 
eighteenth century, and until 1845 they were allowed to 
live only in retired valleys of the Alps. 

JOHN TEWKESBURY^ LEATHER SELLER^ OF LONDON 

John Tewkesbury was converted by studying Tyndall's 
Testament, "The Wicked Mammon," and also the Bible. 
He openly disputed religious matter in the bishop's chapel ; 
and in the doctrine of justification, and in all other ar- 
ticles of his faith, was very prompt in his answers. The 
bishop exhorted him to recant the errors and heresies 
which he held. He examined the book called, "The 
Wicked Mammon," and pronounced it false, heretical and 
condemned by the holy church. He declared Tewkesbury 
to be an open and obstinate heretic. Through the advice 
of fake friends Tewkesbury abjured his opinions: but 
God restored him to grace and after two years he was ap- 
prehended again ; taken before the bishop and condemned. 
His martyrdom occurred in Smithfield, December twen- 
tieth, 1531. 



90 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

JAMES BAINHAM 

James Bainham, a lawyer of London, was next to suffer 
in this reign of terror under Henry VIII. He was chained 
to the stake^ and as he embraced the wood that was piled 
around him he exclaimed, "Oh ye papists, behold, ye look 
for miracles ; here you may see a miracle ; for while in this 
fire I feel no more pain than as if I were in bed ; for it is 
as sweet to me as a bed of roses." 

THREE MEN EXECUTED FOR BURNING AN IDOL 

In "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" we find the record of the 
men who were executed for burning the Eood of Dover- 
court, in 1532, as follows: 

"There was an idol called the Rood of Dover-court, to 
which many people resorted because of a rumor that the 
power of the idol of Dover-court was &o great, that no man 
had power to shut the church door where it stood. They 
let the church door stand open day and night for the 
greater credit of the rumor. This seemed a great wonder 
to many ignorant men; but by others it was greatly sus- 
pected, especially by those whose consciences were bur- 
dened, to see the honor and power of the Almighty God 
80 bla&phemed. Therefore they resolved to travel to the 
place where the Eood stood. They found the church door 
open, which happened well for their purpose; for they 
found the idol, which had as much power to keep the 
door shut as to keep it open. They took it from its shrine, 
carried it a quarter of a mile; struck fire with a flint- 
store, and set it on fire. It burned so brightly that it 
lighted them homeward one good mile. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 91 

Three of the men were afterward indicted for felony, 
and hanged in chains ; which three persons at their death, 
through the Spirit of God, did more to edify the people in 
godly learning than all the sermons that had been preached 
there for a long time before. 

The fourth man of this company, named Eobert Gar- 
diner, escaped their hands and fled. Him the Lord pre- 
served. To God be all honor and glory. 

The same year and the year before, there were many 
images cast down and destroyed in many places; as the 
image of the crucifix in the highway of Coggleshall; the 
image of St. Petronilla, in the church of Great Horkesley ; 
the image of St. Christopher, by Sudbury, and another 
image of St. Petronilla, in a chapel at Ipswich. John 
Seward, of Dedham, overthrew the cross in Stoke-park, 
and took two images from a chapel in the park, and threw 
them into the water.'' 

WILLIAM TYNDALE^ THE TRANSLATOR OF THE SCRIPTURES 

''William Tyndale, the faithful minister and constant 
martyr of Christ, was bom about the borders of Wales, 
and brought up from a child in the University of Oxford, 
where he grew up and increased in the knowledge of 
tongues, and other liberal arts, but more especially in the 
knowledge of the Scriptures, to which his mind was sin- 
gularly addicted; so that in Magdalen-hall he read pri- 
vately to certain students, * * * in&tructing them in 
the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures. His life and 
conversation were such that all who knew him esteemed 
him to be a man of most virtuous disposition, and of un- 
spotted life. * * * 



V-^ MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

As this grew on, the priests of the coimtry clustering 
together, began to storm against Tyndale * * * affirm- 
ing that his sayings were heresy. * * * There came 
out of England one whose name was Henry Phillips. 
* * * Tyndale was often invited to dinner and supper 
amongst the merchants, by means of which this Henry 
Phillips became acquainted with him, and in a short time 
Tyndale had great confidence in him. * * * 

Through the means of this Henry Phillips was William 
Tyndale betrayed. After dining together at the house of 
Thomas Pointz, as they were leaving it> Tyndale was 
seized by two officers whom Phillips had brought for that 
purpose, and then the traitor delivered him to the em- 
peror's partisans, his books were all seized and himself 
cast into prison. 

Tyndale being brought to his answer was offered to have 
an advocate and a proctor, but he refused, saying, that he 
would answer for himself; and so he did. 

At last, after much reasoning * * * be was con- 
demned * * * and brought forth to the place of exe- 
cution ; he was there tied to the stake, and then strangled 
by the hangman and afterward consumed with fire in the 
town of Vivorden, A. D. 1536, crying thus at the stake 
with a fervent zeal and a loud voice, ^Lord, open the king 
of England's eyes.' 

Such was tbe power of his doctrine, and sincerity of 
his life, that during the time of his imprisonment, which 
lasted a year and a half, it is said, he converted his keeper, 
his keeper's daughter, and others of his household. Also 
the rest that were conversant with him in the castle re- 
ported of him, that if he were not a good christian, they 
could not tell whom to trust." 




Tysdale, Strangled 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 



CHAPTEE III 



MARTYRS OF SCOTLAND, THE REIGN OF ilARY, THE 
HUGUENOTS 

Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart, John Knox, Ken- 
nedy and Eussel, Adam Wallace, 1550, Walter Milne, 
John Hooper, Lady Jane Grey, Beheaded, Eawlins White, 
Thomas Watts, Dirick Carver and John Launder, Bishop 
Eidley, Bishop Latimer, John Webbe, George Eoper, and 
Gregory Parke, Hugh Laverock and John Apprice, Three 
Women Burned in Smithfield, Three Women in Guernsey, 
Cicely Ormes, Progress of the Eeformation, Massacre of 
the Huguenots, Mademoiselle Sombruil, Sully, Crimes of 
the Papacy in Ireland, War in Germany. 



"The corruptions by which the christian religion was 
universally debased, before the Eeformation, had grown to 
a greater height in Scotland than in any other nation 
within the pale of the Western church. Superstition and 
religious imposture, in their grossest forms, gained easy 
admission among a rude and ignorant people. By means 
of these, the clergy attained to an exorbitant degree of 
opulence and power, which was accompanied, as it always 
has been, with the corruption of their order, and of the 
whole system of religion. 

The full half of the wealth of the nation belonged to 
the clergy, and the greater part of this was in the hands 
of a few of their number who had the command of the 
whole body. Avarice, ambition, and the love of secular 
pomp, reigned among the superior orders. Bishops and 



94 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

abbots rivaled the first nobility in their magnificence, and 
preceded them in honors: they were privy-councilors and 
lords of session, as well as of Parliament, and had long 
engrossed the principal ofiices of state. * * * 

The lives of the clergy, exempted from secular jurisdic- 
tion, and corrupted by wealth and idleness, were become a 
scandal to religion, and an outrage on decency. While 
they professed chastity, and prohibited under the severest 
penalties, any of the ecclesiastical order from contracting 
lawful wedlock, the bishops set the example of the most 
shameful profligacy before the inferior clergy; avowedly 
kept their harlots; provided their natural sons with ben- 
efices ; and gave their daughters in marriage to the sons of 
the nobility and principal gentry, many of whom were so 
mean as to contaminate the blood of their families by 
such base alliances for the sake of the rich dowries- which 
they brought.'^ — "Foxe's Book of Martyrs." 

The following instances are enough to show how Scot- 
land's martyrs could meet death: 

PATRICK HAMILTON 

The Eeformation in Scotland was started by Patrick 
Hamilton. Of noble birth, he went to Germany in great 
spiritual uncertainty but sought out Luther, from whom 
he received the light, and becoming converted, he returned 
to Scotland about 1527 and started the Eeformation. The 
Catholics seized him^ tried him and burned him to death, 
he, thus becoming the first, and in some respects the most 
eminent of Scotch martyrs. He died at twenty-eight years 
of age; but not before he had fired the hearts of his 
countrymen with true love to God, and started a long line 
of martyrs. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 95 

Thus died Scotland's first Eeformation martyr, mil his 
death was not in vain. A Eomanist afterwards said, "The 
smoke of Patrick Hamilton infected all it blew upon." 
His mouth was closed, but the story of his death was re- 
peated by a thousand tongues. It emboldened others to 
seek a martyr's crown and stirred up many more to defend 
the truths for which he died, and to repudiate the hier- 
archy which found it necessary to defend itself by such 
means. "Humanly speaking," says the author of "The 
Champions of the Eeformation," "could there have been a 
fitter apo&ile for ignorant, benighted Scotland, than this 
fervent, eloquent, pious man, endowed with all those gifts 
that sway the heads of the masses? A zealous, pious la- 
borer in season and out of season ! What herculean labors 
might he not have accomplished! What signal triumphs 
might he not have achieved! So men may reason, but 
God judged otherwise. A short trial, a brief essay, in the 
work he loved and longed for, was permitted him, and then 
the goodly vessel still in sight of land, was broken in 
pieces." 

GEORGE WISHART 

Sixteen years after young Hamilton's death, George 
Wishart, a master in Cambridge College, England, fired by 
the new life within him, went to Scotland and carried on 
the work with great power. Among those who flocked to 
hear him was John Knox, who became one of his earliest 
disciples and who was, under God, destined to shake Scot- 
land as Luther did Germany. Everywhere the Eeforma- 
tion spread under Wishart, and the Catholics would not 
tolerate this. Wishart was treacherously seized, as treach- 
erously tried and was terribly tortured at the stake. 



96 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES, 



JOHN KNOX 



Scarcely was Wishart dead, *but Knox sprang to the 
work, and mighty in the word of God and prayer shook 
the devil's kingdom as it had never before been shaken. 
So mighty was this man of prayer, who nsed to pray: 
"Give me Scotland, or I die," that bloody Queen Mary wa& 
terrified every time she heard he was on his knees, and 
said she feared that man's prayers more than all the armies 
of England. It was largely through his prayers and influ- 
ence that deliverance came to Scotland, that Parliament 
declared Protestantism to be the religion of the land, and 
that Queen Mary was removed from the throne. The story 
of his prevailing prayer is told as follows : 

"The Protestants were being hunted as partridges on 
the mountains, which stirred the great heart of John Knox. 
On his knees, before God, he pleaded for Scotland. ^All 
Scotland for Christ !' was his ceaseless cry. In one of these 
mighty-taking-hold-of-God seasons of his, he sprang to his 
feet with 'the cry : ^Deliverance has come. Deliverance 
has come.' As soon as the courier could speed his way 
from London to the city where John Knox lived, he made 
the proclamation : 'Mary, Queen of England, is dead !' " 

John Knox, whose memory is now honored by the 
world, was despised by tlfe church and burned in effigy at 
the capital in 1556. No one thinks now of calling John 
Knox a fanatic, a ranting comeouter; but he had to quit 
the dead church, as the following piece of history shows : 

"It was with feelings of astonishment, bordering upon 
horror, that he found the friends of Protestant opinions 
unresolved upon the great question, as to whether it was 
their duty to separate from the church. Many of them 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 97 

continued still to sanction, by their presence, the celebra- 
tion of the mass." 

This mighty reformer was evidently opposed to sanc- 
tioning even by being present, the fallen church of his 
day. Yet not a few people are wondering why, in the 
twentieth century, there is such a cry from real holiness 
people against the churches. An editor of a Massachusetts 
paper voices this sentiment by printing the following: 

"Now, what do we find in the religious world today? 
Men and women who are posing as spiritual leaders cry- 
ing out against churches. We do not question their per- 
sonal salvation, but we do their judgment. These so-called 
independent men are trying to build one church by pulling 
down some others ; for they tell their congregation that all 
the» churches are in Babylon, and insist on the people 
coming out. They also cry out against salaried pastors, 
while they themselves, are, in some cases, receiving more 
money from the society they serve than some preachers 
receive as a stated salary. ^The laborer is worthy of his 
liire.' 

I read an abstract from a sermon of an independent 
preacher, whose subject was 'New Bottles for the New 
Wine,' in which he labored to make his congregation be- 
lieve that God had raised up their society to put the new 
wine of His kingdom into. He wiped out every church 
and every religious society, but his, as no longer being fit 
to hold the New Testament wine. It was a production 
marvelous for 'its narrowness.' 

In some cases I have been led to think that these men 
want to be bishops, and run everything themselves. I 
have known people to get turned down if they did not fall 
in with their ideas.'' 



98 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

As we stated in a preceding paragraph John Knox saw 
the necessity of refusing to affiliate with a backslidden 
ecclesiasticism as the majority of all reformers have had 
to do. 

KENNEDY AND RUSSEL 

"In the same year, Kennedy, a youth of eighteen years 
of age, and Eussel, a Gray Friar, were found guilty of 
heresy, and burned at Glasgow; Archbishop Hamilton 
having, it is said, in vain, interceded with the cardinal to 
spare their lives. Kennedy is described by Knox as one 
who possessed a fine genius for Scottish poetry; and it is 
not improbable, he may like Lindsay and Dunbar, have 
distinguished himself by some of those satirical effusions 
against the higher clergy, which is well known were not 
the least efficient weapons in pulling down the strongholds 
of superstition. But the prospect of so cruel a death 
shook his resolution, and it wa& expected that he was about 
to recant, when the exhortations of Eussel, a meek but 
courageous disciple of the truth, produced a sudden change. 
Falling upon his knees, he blessed the goodness and mercy 
of God, which had saved him from impending destruc- 
tion, and breaking out into an ec&tasy of triumph, declared 
he now coveted death, and would endure the utmost tor- 
ture they could inflict. 'Now,' said Eussel, fixing his eyes 
on the prelates who presided, 'now is your hour, * * * 
whilst we stand before you falsely accused and most wrong- 
fully condemned. But the day is coming when we shall 
have our innocence declared, and ye shall discover your 
blindness — meanwhile proceed, and fill up the measure of 
yoi^r iniquities.' 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 99 

The effect of these inhuman executions was highly fa- 
vorable to the doctrine of the Reformation; a circumstance 
to which the eyes of the clergy, and of the monarch 
(James V) who lent them his sanction, were completely 
blinded." 

ADAM WALLACE, 1550 

"Adam Wallace was tried, in the Black Friars' church in 
Edinburgh, for openly preaching, saying and teaching 
blasphemies and abominable heresies, and condemned. 
Provision was commanded to be made for his burning. 
When beside the fire, he lifted up his eyes to Heaven, and 
said to the people, ^Let it not cause you to stumble that 
I suffer death this day for the truth's sake; for the dis- 
ciple is not greater than his Master.' " 

WALTER MILNE 

"Walter Milne, a parish priest who had embraced the 
doctrines of the Reformation, was thrown into prison but 
was so fortunate as to escape and remain in concealment in 
his native countr}' . This venerable minister of the truth, 
who was past eighty, began openly to preach to the people ; 
but the severity of the clergy again compelled him to seek 
his lurking places; but being discovered at this time, he 
was tried for heresy at St. Andrews, and condemned to be 
burned. From his feeble frame and great age, it was 
expected he would say little in his defence, but the old 
man exhibited uncommon spirit, and after the clergy had 
pronounced him guilty no secular judge could be found 
to pass sentence. The odious office, however, was at last 
performed by a dissolute retainer of the archbishop, and 
he was led to the stake amid the tears and sympathy of 
an immense multitude, who execrated the cruelty of which 



100 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

he was the victim. Surrounded by the flames he was yet 
able to testify that the cauae for which he. suffered was 
the defence of the truth of Jesus Christ. ^As for myself/ 
said he, 'I am four score and two years old and cannot live 
long, but a hundred better shall rise out of the ashes of 
my bones; and I trust in God I am the last that shall 
suffer death in Scotland for this causa.' And his prophetic 
wishes were fulfilled: he was the last in that country of 
the army of martyrs. 

Yea, the whole town was so offended at his unjust con- 
demnation, that the bishop's servants could not get, even 
for money, so much as a cord to tie him to the stake, or a 
tar barrel to burn him ; but were constrained to cut the 
cords' of their master's own pavilion to serve their turn." 

JOHN HOOPER 

Many were the persecutions that followed under the 
reign o£ Mary, and they continued until the day of her 
death. Bishop John Hooper was one oi the first christians 
to be condemned by her, to prison and to the stake. He 
was burned at the stake in Gloucester and a large crowd 
of people were present; but he was not allowed to preach 
to them. Pardon was offered if he would recant; but he 
despised the offer. The fire was made of green wood and 
burned very slowly and a cold wind blew the fiame from 
him so that his torture was long continued and his suf- 
fering very great ; but he died cheerfully. 

LADY JANE GREY^ BEHEADED 

"It was now resolved to proceed against Lady Jane 
Grey and her husband. She had lived six months in the 
hourly meditation of death, so she was not much surprised 



A i?ERSECUTED PEOPLE. lOl 

when the catastrophe arrived. * * * Her death was as 
much lamented as her life had been admired. It affected 
Judge Morgan, who had prono\mced the sentence, so much, 
that he became insane, and thought she perpetually fol- 
lowed him. The queen herself was troubled at it; for it 
was rather a reason of state than of private resentment, 
that induced her to sign the death-warrant of one whose 
virtues she must have envied and admired. Her father, 
who was soon afterwards tried by his peers, condemned, 
and executed ; was the les& pitied, because by his means his 
daughter was brought to her untimely end." 

To the "American Tract Society" we are indebted for 
the following further account in regard to this martyr of 
royal birth: 

"The night before she was beheaded she sent a Greek 
Testament to her sister Catharine, with this high encomium 
written at the end of it: *I have here sent you, sister 
Catharine, a book, which^ although it be not outwardly 
trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is of more worth than 
precious stones. It is the book, of the law of the Lord. 
His testament and last will, which He bequeathed unto 
us; which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy. It 
shall teach 5^ou how to live and how to die. It shall win 
you more than you could have gained by your woeful 
f athei*^s land ; for, if you follow its teachings, you shall be 
an inheritor of such riches as neither the covetous shall 
draw from you, neither thief shall steal, neither yet the 
moths corrupt.'" 

EAWLINS WHITE 

"Eawlins White was burned at Cardiff, where he had 
been imprisoned for a year, in a very dark, loathsome and 



102 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

vile prison. At the hour of his execution, coming to where 
his poor wife and children stood weeping, the sudden 
sight of them so pierced his heart, that the tears trickled 
down his face. But disliking this infirmity of the flesh, 
said, 'Ah, flesh, checkest thou me so! wouldst thou fain 
prevail ! Well, I tell thee, do what thou canst, thou shalt 
not, by God's grace, have the victory.' Then the smith 
put a chain about him, and while he was making it fast 
Eawlins said to him, 'I pray you, good friend, knock in 
the chain fast; for it may be that the flesh would strive 
mightily, but God of His great mercy, give me strength and 
patience to abide the extremity.' Thus died this godly old 
man, Rawlins, for the testimony of God's truth." 

THOMAS WATTS 

"Thomas Watts was a linen draper. Being in continual 
fear of seizure, he had sold his cloth and his shop, dis- 
persed his things to his wife and children and given away 
much to the poor. 

On the twenty-sixth of April he was apprehended, ac- 
cused and condemned for not going to church. He was 
then sent to Newgate, where he remained for a short time. 
Just before going to the stake Watts said to his wife and 
six children: 'Wife, and my good children, I must now 
depart from you; but, as the Lord hath given you unto 
me, so I give you again unto the Lord, whom I charge you 
to obey, and fear; and beware you turn not to this abom- 
inable papistry, against which I shall soon, by God's grace, 
give my blood. Let not the murdering of God's saints 
cause you to relent, but take occasion thereby to be stronger 
in the Lord's cause.' Two of them offered to be burned 
with him. In the end he bade farewell, and was carried 
to the fire." 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 10^ 

DIRICK CARVER AND JOHN LAUNDER 

'^On the twenty-second of July, there was burned at 
Lewes * * * Dirick Carver ; and, on the next day, was 
also burned at Stening, another man, named John Launder. 
These two men^, with others, had been apprehended about 
the end of October, 1554, while they were at prayer in the 
dwelling house of Dirick. * * * After examination they 
were sent as prisoners to Newgate, there to await the 
leisure of Bonner, bishop of London. 

The bishop seeing that neither his accustomed flatteries, 
nor yet his cruel threatenings, could move this good man 
(Dirick), pronounced his usual bles&ing (i. e., sentence 
of condemnation to be burned), both on Dirick Carver 
and John Launder, who remained in the same constancy, 
and afterwards were conveyed to the places above named, 
and there most joyfully gave their bodies to be burned in 
the fire, and their souls into the hands of Almighty God, 
by Jesus Christ, who assured them of a better hope of 
life. This Dirick was a man whom the Lord had blessed 
well with temporal riches as well as with His spiritual 
treasures. * * * As he came to the stake, he kneeled 
down and made his prayers. * * * The sheriff spake to 
him, and said, 'If thou dost not believe on the pope, thou 
art damned, body and soul.' And further the sheriff said 
to hkn, 'Speak to thy God that He may deliver thee nov/, 
or else to strike me down for an example to this people.' 
But this faithful martyr said, 'The Lord forgive you your 
sayings.' Then he spake again to all the people with a 
loud voice, 'I heartily forgive you all who have offended 
me in thought, word or deed.' And he said further in his 
prayer, '0 Lord, my God, Thou hast written, 'He that 



104 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of 
me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is 
not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his ero&s 
and followeth after me is not worthy of me/ But Thou, 
Lord, knowest that I have forsaken all to come unto Thee." 
This joyful martyr had Jumped into a pitch barrel, and 
after the above prayer and exhortation, fire was set to the 
barrel. "After the fire came to him, he cried, '0 Lord, 
have mercy upon me!' and sprang up in the fire, calling 
upon the name of Jesus, and died." 

BISHOP RIDLEY 

"Doctor Eidley was converted by reading Bertram's book 
of the sacrament. Soon after the beginning of Queen 
Mary's reign, he was- imprisoned; first in the Tower, then 
sent with the archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Lat- 
imer to Oxford, where he was^ with them, confined in the 
common gaol." 

BISHOP LATIMER 

"After the life of Bishop Ridley, we relate the life of 
the worthy champion of Christ, Bishop Latimer. His 
parents, seeing his ready, prompt, and sharp wit, pro- 
posed to give him a literary education. He became a zeal- 
ous Catholic and a priest. 

Later on he was led of the Holy Ghost to give up his 
studies and become a preacher of Christ. His preaching 
made such a stir in Cambridge that the devil arose up in 
swarms of Black Friars which beset him on every side. 
But in spite of their charges of heresy and their persecu- 
tions he continued to preach until soon after the death of 




Burned in Pitch Barrel 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 105 

King Edward, when he was arrested, by order of Queen 
Mary, and cast into the Tower, where Bishop Ridley was 
already confined. He was now sixty-seven years old. 

Latimer and Ridley were examined and executed to- 
gether. The place of execution was outside the city, in a 
ditch, and for fear of a tumult the bailiffs were well 
armed. 

The prisoners were brought out and fagots made ready 
to kindle the fire; and when Latimer said, ^Be of good 
cheer, Brother Ridley, we shall thi& day light such a 
candle, by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never 
be put out' Hundreds were moved to tears to behold the 
manner in which they were tortured while burning." 

They are gone and the reward of this world they have 
had. What remains for them in Heaven, the day of the 
Lord's glory, when He comes with His saints, shall de- 
clare. "Behold," He says, "I come quickly, and my 
reward i& with me, to give to every man according as his 
work shall be." 

JOHN WEBBE, GEORGE ROPEE, AND GREGORY PARKE 

"After the death and martyrdom of the two most worthy 
champions and standard bearers of Christ's army. Doctor 
Nicholas Ridley and Master Hugh Latimer, followed the 
martyrdom of three other stout and bold soldiers, John 
Webbe, George Roper and Gregory Parke. 



These martyrs of Christ being brought to the stake, and 
there compassed about with a chain, were burned and con- 
sumed all three together in one fire, at Canterbury, abiding 



106 MARa?YRS IN ALL AGES. 

most patiently their torments, and counting themselves 
happy and blessed of the Lord, that they were made 
worthy to suffer for Christ's gospel's sake.'^ 

HUGH LAVEROCK AND JOHN APPRICE 

"I know not whether more to marvel at the great and 
unsearchable mercies of God, with whom there is no re- 
spect of persons, for He chooseth as well the poor, lame, 
and blind, as the rich, mighty and healthful, to set forth 
His glory, or else to note the unsearchable, or rather un- 
natural doings of these unmerciful papists (I mean bishop 
Bonner and his accomplices), in whom there was so little 
favor or mercy to all conditions of men, that they spared 
neither impotent age, nor lame, nor blind, as will appear 
by the following poor creatures, whose names were Hugh 
Laverock, painter, aged sixty-eight, a lame cripple; and 
John x\pprice, a blind man. They were afterward taken 
before the bishop to be examined. The bishop then turned 
to John Apprice, and asked what he would say. 

He answered, *Your doctrine, that you set forth and 
teach, is so agreeable with the world, and embraced by the 
world, that it cannot be agreeable with the Scriptures of 
God, and you are not of the Catholic church; for you 
make laws to kill men, and make the queen your hang- 
man.' * * * 

At their death, Hugh Laverock, after he was chained, 
cast away his crutch, and comforting John Apprice, his 
fellow martyr, said unto him, *Be of good comfort, my 
brother; for my Lord of London is our good Physician. 
He will heal us both shortly; thee of thy blindness, and 
me of my lameness.' And so patiently these two good 
saints of God suffered together." 




Ridley and Latimer 

(See page 104.) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 107 

THREE WOMEN BURNED IN SMITHFIELD 

"The next day after the martyrdom of this lame and 
blind man, were brought to the fire three women, with 
whom also was joined another, who being of the same 
opinion and constancy with them, was likewise a par- 
taker of the same condemnation. Their names were: 
Katharine Hut, widow; Joan Horns, maiden; Elizabeth 
Tackvell, maiden; Margaret Ellis, maiden, was condemned 
with them." Margaret Ellis died in Newgate before the 
time of her execution arrived. 

"These three innocent and godly women, thus falsely 
and wrongfully condemned for the Just cause of God's 
gospel, were conveyed to Smithfield on the sixteenth of 
May, and there cruelly bound to the stake, giving their 
bodies to the tormentors, but their spirits they recom- 
mended to God, for whose glory they were willing and 
ready to suffer whatever the cruel hands of their enemies 
should work against them, dying more joyfully in the 
flaming fire^ than some of them that burned them did in 
their beds. Such a Lord is God, glorious and wonderful 
in all His saints." 

THREE WOMEN IN GUERNSEY 

"Amongst all the histories narrated in thi& book, though 
there are many pitiful, several lamentable, others horrible 
and tragical, yet is there none to be compared either for 
cruelty, or so far off from all compassion and sense of 
humanity, as this merciless act of the papists done in the 
I&le of Guernsey, upon three women and an infant ; namely, 
Katharine Cawches, the mother; Willemine Gilbert, the 
daughter; Perotine Massey, the other daughter; and an 
infant, the son of Perotine. 



108 Martyrs in all ages. 

These women, charged with having stolen goods in their 
possession, were confined in the castle. They made sup- 
plication to the justices to have justice administered to 
them, if they had offended the law; if not, beseeching 
them to grant them the privileges of subjects. Thereupon 
they were appointed to come to trial, and after examina- 
tion it was proved that they lived as became christian 
women. Through the testimony of the neighbors they were 
proved not guilty ; save only, that to the commandments of 
the holy church they had not been obedient. 

The three women, * * * ^^j.^ returned prisoners 
again into the castle for their not coming to the church, 
and a few days later condemned as heretics. 

When the time arrived that these three good women 
should suffer, the innocent mother with her two daughters, 
there were three stakes set up in the place where they 
were to die. At the middle post was the mother, the 
eldest daughter on the right hand, the youngest on the 
other. They were first strangled, but the rope broke before 
they were dead and so the poor women fell into the fire. 
Perotine, one of the daughters, * * * gave birth to 
an infant in the midst of the flames, who was taken out of 
the fire. * * * Then was the child carried to the 
provost and from him to the bailiff, who gave sentence 
that it should be carried back again and cast into the 
fire, and so the infant was both bom and died a martyr." 

CICELY ORMES 

"About the twenty-third of September, 1557, Cicely 
Ormes, wife of a worsted weaver of St. Lawrence Parish, 
Norwich, was martyred, at the age of thirty-two. She had 




Three Women of Guernsey 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 109 

been imprisoned for saying that she did not believe that 
the priests had the power to transform bread into the 
literal body of Christ. The bishop offered her liberty, if 
she would go to church, but hold her tongue, saying she 
might believe as she would; which compromise she would 
not accept, so was condemned. On coming to the stake 
she said, 'Good people, I believe in God the Father, God 
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one 
God. This do I not, nor will I recant ; but I recant utterly 
from the bottom of my heart the doings of the pope of 
Rome, and all his popish priests. I utterly refuse and 
never will have to do with them again by God's grace. 
And, good people, I would you should not think of me, 
I believe to be saved through the death and passion of 
Christ, and this my death is, and shall be, a witness of 
my faith, unto you all here present.' This woman was 
burned at the same stake where Simon Miller and Eliza- 
beth Cooper were burned." 

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION 

Bloody Queen Mary, whose reign lasted but five years, 
passed out of this life, into the blackness of gloom, haunted 
by her foul crimes and the memory of the victims of her 
rage. 

In England, the Reformation went forward under many 
preachers and was attended by awful persecutions. Dur- 
ing the reign of Elizabeth the Puritans were most cruelly 
persecuted in almost every conceivable way. King James 
VI ascended the throne of England and was even more 
tyrannical and despotic than Elizabeth had been. 

Queen Elizabeth passed out of this life screaming, '^A 
half million for another minute of time!" They fought 



110 MAETYRS IN ALL AGES. 

the Holy Ghost and God's true, holy people and God turned 
to be their enemy and they all miserably perished. Eliza- 
beth's reign, up to 1570, embraces the first period of the 
history of Puritanism. Hideous persecutions and repeated 
offenses against freedom of conscience, resulted in driving 
the Puritans to America. "We cannot doubt that the scat- 
tering abroad of the Huguenots and the Puritans was 
blessed to the countries whither they fled, for they were 
intelligent, industrious. God-fearing and enlightened." 
The jails were still occupied by christians in Scotland and 
the fires were burning there. People in Germany, France, 
Switzerland and elsewhere were giving their lives for 
Christ, — saving them by losing them for Him. 

In the second year of the reign of Henry II of France, 
a grand tournament was planned to celebrate the occasion 
of his entry into Paris. 

To make the spectacle interesting and complete a few 
heretics were burned alive in the public court. The scene 
was so horrible as to almost unhinge the reason of one not 
accustomed to such exhibitions. 

It is believed that Henry never quite recovered his men- 
tal equilibrium, for, ever afterward when the scene was 
brought to his mind, he was observed to shudder as if 
about to fall in a spasm. 

The Eeformation began in France, but it spread so 
rapidly that it seemed that God was speaking in all these 
countries at the same time, and one of the darkest chap- 
ters in the history of the world is yet to come. 

While the Eeformation, as a religious movement, never 
gained control in France, as it did in other countries, yet 
France^ without doubt, saw in those terrible days bloodier 



{ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. Ill 

persecutions and moro deaths than any other country on 
the globe. The Huguenots, who became known by that 
name in 1560 and at one time all but made France a 
Protestant country, were the object of the venom and 
savagery of the Catholics, as were no other people that 
ever laid down their lives for Jesus. History records that 
in 135 years alone during one season of persecutions, more 
than one-half million Huguenots were burned, slaughtered 
or otherwise killed throughout France. The Catholics 
would not even allow these humble christians to leave the 
country, but would guard the roads and drive back any 
who attempted flight, to slaughter them as dumb animals; 
or force them to accept Catholicism. Such was the ferocity 
of the Catholics that women were taken to convents and 
forced to keep awake night after night, by the nuns, until 
they collapsed and embraced the Catholic faith. 

MASSACRE OF THE HUGUENOTS 

The most atrocious persecution of all was the Massacre 
of St. Bartholomew days, August twenty-four, twenty-five, 
1573, when the French King, Charles IV, his mother, 
Catherine De Medici, and the Catholics determined to wipe 
out every Huguenot in France. Catherine herself gave 
the signal for the massacre from her palace window in 
Paris, and in a week, between thirty thousand and one 
hundred thousand Huguenots were massacred. The Pope, 
Gregory XIII, ordered masses sung in St. Peter's, at 
Eome, and in all the Catholic churches^, in gleeful celebra- 
tion of the awful deed. By his order, a picture of the 
slaughter was painted, and still hangs on the walls of the 
papal palace. A medal was also struck in commemoration 



112 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

of the event, one side of it presenting the head of the 
pope, and the other the exterminating angel, with the 
sword and the cross, destroying the Protestants, and hav- 
ing this inscription in Latin, "Slaughter of the Hugue- 
nots, 1572." 

At midnight the awful signals were given; bells were 
rung, torches were put into the windows, chains placed 
across the streets, and the bloody work began. The mur- 
derers spared neither sex nor age. Many were slain in 
their beds, and the headless bodies thrown through the 
windows. The badge worn by these inhuman monsters 
engaged in this tragedy was a white cross in their hats. 
They were encouraged by the priests, who each held a 
sword in one hand and a crucifix in the other. 

King Charles, however, after the awful first night in 
Paris fell more under the devil's power and became fitful 
and melancholy. He would have terrible nightmares, and 
awake from them, dripping with perspiration. He en- 
deavored to shake off the memory of the terrible sights, 
by indulging in sports, but could not, and in less than 
two years after, was seized with a terrible illness. "It is 
declared by credible historians that his sufferings, both 
bodily and mental, were so great that the blood oozed 
from the pores of his skin. He died a horrible death, 
May thirty, 1574, when only twenty-four years of age." 

Henry IV protected the Huguenots by the edict of 
Nantes in 1598. The edict granted them the right to 
worship God according to the dictates of their own con- 
science; but it was repealed by Louis XIV in 1685, who 
decided that Catholic absolutism must be restored. Troops 
of dragoons were sent into the districts where the Hugue- 



A I»ERSECUTED PEOPLE. Il3 

nots lived and a persecution was organized against them, 
which has been made famous under the name of the 
Dragonade. The Huguenot peasants were hunted into the 
woods like wild beasts and shot down at the caprice of their 
>ersecutors. As a result the Huguenots, over half a 
lillion in number, hopeless of peace in France, turned 
heir eyes to Germany, Switzerland and to this continent 
where they were protected by the law, which, while it can- 
not change the human heart and exempt from persecution, 
is a very great protection. 

The history of this horrid butchery is given by Eev. 
James White in his "Eighteen Christian Centuries,'' and 
we quote therefrom: 

"This massacre was no chance-sprung event, like an 
ordinary populace uprising, but had been maturing for 
many years. The council of Trent, which met in 1545 
and continued in its sittings imtil 1563, had devoted those 
eighteen years to codifying the laws of the Catholic church. 
A definite, clear and consistent system was established, 
and acknowledged as the religious and ecclesiastical faith 
of Christendom^. Men were not now left to a painful gath- 
ering of the sentiments and rescripts of popes and doctors 
out of various and scattered writings. Here were the stat- 
utes at large, minutely indexed and easy of reference. 
From these many texts could be gathered which justified 
any method of diffusing the true belief or exterminating 
the false. 

And accordingly, a short time after the close of the 
council, an interview took place between two personages, 
of very sinister augury for the Protestant cause. Catherine 
de Medici and the Duke of Alva met at Bayonne in 1565. 
In this consultation great things were discussed; and it 



114 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

was decided by the wickedest woman and the harshest man 
in Europe that the government could not be saie nor re- 
ligion honored unless by the introduction of the Inquisi- 
tion and a general massacre of heretics in every land. A 
few months later saw the ferocious Alva beginning his 
bloodthirsty career in the Netherlands, in which he boasted 
he put eighteen thousand Hollanders to death on the scaf- 
fold, in five years. Catherine pondered his lessons in her 
heart, and when seven years had passed, and the Hugue- 
nots were still unsubdued, she persuaded her son, Charles 
IX, that the time was come to establish his kingdom, in 
righteousness ( ?), by the indiscriminate murder of all the 
Protestants. An occasion was found in 1572, when the 
marriage of Henry of Navarre, afterwards the best loved 
king of France, with the Princess Marguerite de Valois, 
held out a prospect of soothing the religious troubles, and 
also (which suited her design better) of attracting all the 
heads of the Huguenots' cause to Paris. Everything 
turned out as she hoped. There had been feasts and gaye- 
ties, and suspicion had been thoroughly disarmed. Sud- 
denly the tocsin sounded and the murderers let loose over 
all the town. No plea was received in extenuation of the 
deadly crime of favoring the new opinions. Hospitality, 
friendship, relationship, youth, sex, were all disregarded. 
The streets were red with blood, and the river choked with 
mutilated bodies. Upwards of seventy thousand were 
butchered in Paris alone, and the metropolitan example 
was followed in other places. The deed was so awful that 
for awhile it silenced the whole of Europe. Some doubted, 
some shuddered ; but Eome sprang up with a shout of joy 
when the news was confirmed, and uttered prayers of 
thanksgiving for so great a victory. 




Morning after St. Bartholomew 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 115 

If it could have been possible to put every gainsayer, 
everywhere, to death, the triumph would have been com- 
plete; but there were countries where Catherine's dagger 
could not reach; and wherever her name was heard, and 
the terrible details of the massacre were known, undying 
hatred of the church, which encouraged such iniquity, 
mingled with feelings of pity and alarm. For no one 
could feel safe. The Huguenots were under the highest 
protection known to the heart of man^ They were guests, 
and they were taken unawares in the midst of the rejoic- 
ings of a marriage. Eome lost more by the massacre than 
the Protestants. People looked around and saw the butch- 
eries in the Netherlands, the slaughters in Paris, the tor- 
tures in the Inquisition, and over all, rioting in hopes of 
recovered dominion, supported by priests and Dominicans ; 
a pope who plainly threatened a repetition of such scenes 
wherever his power was acknowledged. 

Germany, the Netherlands-, England, Scotland, and the 
northern nations, were lost to the church of Eome more 
surely, by the scaffold and crimes which professed to bring 
her aid, than by any other cause. Elizabeth was now the 
accepted champion and leader of the Protestants, and on 
her, all the malice of the baffled Eomanists was turned. 
To weaken, to dethrone or murder the English heretic, 
was the praiseworthiest of deeds.'^ 

MADEMOISELLE SOMBRUIL 

"Mademoiselle Sombruil had been eight days with her 
father in prison when the unhappy massacres of Septem- 
ber commenced. After many prisoners had been murdered. 



116 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

and the sight of blood continually flowing seemed only to 
increase the rage of the assassins, while the wretched in- 
mates of the prison endeavored to hide themselves from 
the death that hovered over them, Mademoiselle Sombruil 
rushed into the presence of the murderers who had seized 
her father. 'Barbarians !' she cried, 'hold your hands, he 
is my father!' She threw herself at their feet. In one 
moment she seized the hand that was lifted against her 
father, and in the next she offered her own person to the 
sword, so placing herself that the parent could not be 
struck but through the body of his child. So much cour- 
age and filial affection in so young a girl for the moment 
diverted the attention of the assassins. She perceived that 
they hesitated, and seized on the favorable opportunity. 
While she entreated for her father's life, one of the mon- 
sters proposed the following condition: 'Drink,' said he, 
'a glass of blood and save your father.' She shuddered and 
retreated some paces; but the filial affection gained the 
ascendency, and she yielded to the horrible condition. 'In- 
nocent or guilty,' said one of those who performed the 
office of judge, 'it is unworthy of the people to bathe their 
hands in the blood of the old man, since they must first 
destroy this virtuous girl.' A cry of 'pardon' was heard. 
The daughter, revived by this signal of safety, threw her- 
self into her father's trembling arms, which scarcely had 
power to press her to his bosom, being so overcome by 
such powerful affection and so providential a deliverance. 
Even the most outrageous assassins were unable to restrain 
their tears ; and the father and daughter were triumphantly 
conducted to a place of safety." 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 117 

SULLY 

In closing this awful record we quote the following from 
an eyewitness named Sully: 

"I was aroused about three hours after midnight by the 
noise of bells and the confused cries of the populace. St. 
Julian and my governor went out hastily with my valet- 
de-chambre to learn the cause, and I have never since 
heard anything of those two men, who were, without doubt, 
sacrificed among the first, to the public fury. I remained 
alone, * * * where, a few minutes after, I observed 
my host enter, pale and in consternation. He was of the 
religion, and having heard what was the matter, he had 
decided on going to mass to save his life, and preserve his 
house from plunder. He came to persuade me to do the 
same and to take me with him. I did not think fit to 
follow him. I resolved on attempting to get to the col- 
lege of Burgundy, where I studied, notwithstanding the 
distance of the house where I lived from the college, which 
made my attempt very dangerous. I put on my scholar's 
gown, and taking a large pair of prayer books under my 
arm, I went down stairs. I was seized with horror as I 
went into the street at seeing the furious men running in 
every direction, breaking open the houses and calling out, 
*Kill, massacre the Huguenots!' and the blood which I 
saw shed before my eyes redoubled my fright; I fell in 
with a body of soldiers, who stopped me : I was questioned ; 
they began to ill-treat me ; when the books which I carried 
were discovered, happily for me, and served me for a pass- 
port. Twice afterwards I fell into the same danger, from 
which I was delivered with the same good fortune. At 
length I arrived at the college of Burgundy, where a still 
greater danger awaited me, The porter having twice re- 



118 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

fused me admittance, I remained in the middle of the 
street at the mercy of the ruffians, whose numbers kept in- 
creasing, and who eagerly sought for their prey; when I 
thought of asking for the principal of the college of Bur- 
gundy: named Dayfaye, a worthy man, and one who ten- 
derly loved me. The porter gained by some small pieces 
of money which I put into his hands did not refuse to 
fetch him. This good man took me to his chamber, where 
two inhuman priests, whom I heard talk of the Sicilian 
Vespers, tried to snatch me from his hands to tear me to 
pieces, saying that the order was to kill even infants at 
the breast. 

All that he could do was to lead me with great secrecy 
to a remote closet^, where he locked me in. I remained 
there three whole days, uncertain of my fate, and receiving 
no assistance but from a servant of this charitable man, 
who came from time to time and brought me something to 
live upon.^^ 

The awful massacre extended through the kingdom. 
There is a list of names of about seven hundred dead, and 
some historians claim that the number of Protestants 
slaughtered was over one thousand. Fanaticism, bigotry 
and other bad passions had sway until it was supposed that 
the race of the Huguenots was extinct, but some of them 
were kept by the power of God, in dens and caves of the 
earth. 

The following hymn, which is Number Fifty-three, in 
* "Burning Bush Songs," was sung by the Huguenots in 
the caves of France during the fierce persecution which fell 
upon them over three hundred years ago : 



*Burning Bush Songs, published by the Metropolitan 
Church Association, Waukesha, Wis. Price ten cents. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 119 

"I have a Friend so precious. 

So very dear to me, 
He loves me with such tender love, 

He loves so faithfully; 
I could not live apart from him, 

I love to feel him nigh, 
And so we dwell together, 

My Lord and I. 

Sometimes I'm faint and weary, 

He knows that I am weak, 
And as he bids me lean on him. 

His help I gladly seek; 
He leads me in the paths of light, 

Beneath a sunny sky, 
And so we walk together. 

My Lord and I. 

He knows how much I love him. 

He knows I love him well; 
But with what love he loveth me. 

My tongue can never tell. 
It is an everlasting love, 

In ever rich supply. 
And so we love each other. 

My Lord and I. 

I tell him all my sorrows, 

I tell him all my joys, 
I tell him all that pleases me, 

I tell him what annoys; 
He tells me what I ought to do, 



120 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

He tells me what to try. 
And so we walk together, 
My Lord and I. 

He knows how I am longing, 

Some weary soul to win, 
And so he bids me go and speak 

A loving word for him; 
He bids me tell his wondrous love. 

And how he came to die; 
And so we work together, 

My Lord and I/' 

The word "Huguenot" is from low German, "eidgnoten," 
and was a term of opprobium applied to this persecuted 
people. French history says that the early French Prot- 
estants were generally called Huguenots after the year 1560„ 

CRIMES OF THE PAPACY IN IRELAND 

Ireland at this time was not without its witnesses, and 
they, not without persecution. In 1601, what the Cath- 
olics call "the holy war for the preservation of the faith in 
Ireland,'' began, but it ended in defeat. The papacy then 
sought to crush, by secretly laid plans, the faith they had 
failed to destroy by the war, and a conspiracy was laid for 
the murder of all Protestants. The killing was to begin 
October twenty-third, 1641. It was delayed, however, but 
the order for the massacre was not recalled. Instead, the 
priests and friars told the common people that it was an 
unpardonable crime to protect or relieve a Protestant, so 
that they soon proceeded, in almost all parts of the king- 
dom, to murder them in most horrible ways. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 121 



WAR IN GERMANY 



In 1630 a war broke out between the emperor of Ger- 
many and the king of Sweden. The latter was a Protestant 
and the Protestants of Germany angered their emperor by 
taking sides with Sweden. In consequence their churches 
were torn down and their houses pillaged and destroyed; 
but these were the least of the things they suffered. In 
1631 the city of Magdelburg was taken by the imperialists 
and twenty thousand persons were slain. The cruelties 
enacted during these tragedies can scarcely be enumerated. 
The christians were smothered;, hanged, half strangled and 
then allowed to recover and made to undergo some other 
torture; mutilated by having the eyes gouged out, or the 
ears cut off, and then chained together and turned away to 
starve or bleed to death. Through the bodies of others, 
wires were run; some were baked; some broiled; some 
roasted; some forced to drink water until their bodies 
would burst ; some were crucified ; some buried alive ; some 
drawn through the streets or torn to pieces by horses; 
some hacked to pieces, and to others packages of powder 
were tied and the powder then ignited so that the victim 
would be blown to pieces, and others were stuffed with 
filthy things until they choked to death. Count Tilly's 
soldiers did their worst at his command, but Christianity 
was not wiped out of Germany and at length the war was 
over and peace ensued for some years. 

An old martyrology says: 

"In 1732, thirty thousand were, contrary to the treaty 
of Westphalia, driven from the Archbishopric of Saltz- 
burg. They went away in the depths of winter, with scarce 
clothes to cover them, and without provisions, not having 
permission to take anything with them," 



132 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

CHAPTER IV 

MARTYRS OF THE MODERN INQUISITION. 

The Inquisition, Don Carlos de Sessa;, Donna Maria de 
Bohorques, Marc Antonio de Dominis, Don Miguel Juan 
Antonio Solano, In Portugal, Asaad Shidiak. 



To the bishops of the early church belonged the duty of 
contending earnestly for the faith, visiting churches, en- 
deavoring to check false doctrines, discovering and punish- 
ing heretics, and delivering by faithful preaching and by 
enforcing discipline, the souls that were under their care, 
from the snares of the devil. The most severe punish- 
ment ever inflicted by them was excommunication ; but by 
degrees the rules changed, the church degenerated and its 
customs became so perverted that the Roman Catholic 
church, while retaining a horror of heresy, soon came to 
approve of lying, perjury and the use of most dreadful 
instruments of torture in her attempts at its extermina- 
tion; and by the exercise of temporal powers that offered 
to execute her sentences, became a bloody assassin, guilty 
of all manner of crime, and, notwithstanding her plan and 
desire to be protected from the charge, by having the civil 
authorities execute her jud^ents, her blood-guiltiness is 
ever before the Lord of all the earth. Her theology had 
become corrupted and the theologians and monks upon 
whom the office of inquisitor was conferred, were bereft, it 
would seem^ both of soul and reason. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 123 

THE INQUISITION 

The word;, Inquisition, is of Latin derivation, from in- 
quisitio, a seeking after, and the Inquisition is the name 
usually given to a tribunal of the Roman Catholic church 
in Spain, — the work of which was to detect and suppress 
heresy. The office of inquisitor was conferred by the pope 
and the inquisitor-general possessed authority nearly equal 
to that of a king, and when that authority was supported 
by the pope and the king it was irresistible. 

Of the martyrs of the Inquisition previous to the thir- 
teenth century we have told in the preceding chapter; also 
those of the * Dominican Inquisition from the time of the 
council of Toulouse in 1229; but as the martyrdoms we 
now record took place in the third and final period of the 
Inquisition, known generally as the Modern or Spanish 
Inquisition, we have selected and herewith append a brief 
account thereof. 

"The Inquisition seemed unequal to the problem laid 
before it in Spain, where, instead of simple-hearted Albi- 
gensians, it had to deal with rich and crafty Jews and 
highly trained Moors. Forced to profess a Christianity 
which they hated, they loathed the worship of virgin or 
saint, the pictured or graven effigy of the Christ, the thou- 
sand objects of mediaeval worship, all of which to their 
eyes were mere idolatries; their allegiance to such a faith 
was that of compulsion, which fostered the bitterest sense 
of wrong. Between them and the old Catholic Spaniards 
smoldered a perpetual grudge; the Inquisition seemed 



*So successful were the Dominicans in scouting and track- 
ing heretics (?) that they were dominated Domini cane? (the 
dogs of the Lord). 



124 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

unable to overcome the evil. When, however, Castile and 
Arragon were united bj Ferdinand and Isabella, political 
aims, as well as religious fanaticism, demanded more 
stringent measures against independent thought. * * * 
When in 1477 Friar Philip de Barberi, inquisitor for 
Sicily, came to Seville for the confirmation of his office, 
and pressed on Ferdinand the great advantages of a 
revived system on the Sicilian plan, the king, led by his 
hunger for gold, and the queen, guided by her piety, were 
easily persuaded, and sent to Eome to solicit the establish- 
ment of such tribunal as Barberi suggested. 

* * * 

The first inquisitors named in 1480 were Dominicans; 
their tribunal was established at Seville, where they were 
but sullenly received. In 1481 they began work, and be- 
fore that year was out had burnt two hundred ninety-eight 
victims in Seville alone, besides many effigies of those who 
had happily escaped. The Jesuit historian Mariana as- 
sures us that in this year full two thousand were burned 
in the archbishopric of Seville and the bishopric of Cadiz ; 
the Quemadero, or cremation place, builded at this time by 
the prefect of Seville, not far from that city, a square plat- 
form of stone, was a grim altar on which the lives of almost 
daily victims ascended in clouds of smoke to heaven. 

* * * 

October, 1483, the Dominican father Thomas of Tor- 
quemada (de Turrecremata), was named by Sixtus IV 
Inquisitor-general for Castile and Leon. From him the 
Inquisition received its full organization. * * * Officials 
were well paid from the confiscation fund; it was the in- 
terest of all that that stream of wealth should never run 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 125 

dry; Torquemada was to the full as eager as Ferdinand 
for profit from this unholy source. * * * Torquemada 
in 1484 summoned to Seville all heads of local tribunals, 
who presently published a code of thirty-nine articles. The 
dreary list regulates the procedure of the 'Holy Office.' 
* * 4( 

The Inquisition got the victim's property by confiscation, 
and the papacy, the wealth of his friends in the appeal. 
If the sentence was, as did sometimes occur, an acquittal, 
the poor wretch might slink home without redress or recom- 
pense for imprisonment, and with the agony of the trial 
and the torture; if it was a condemnation, the victim was 
made the center of an mdo-da-fe, dressed in a sanbenito, 
or condemned man's robe, and eventually, at the open place 
of execution informed as to his fate. He might be either 
'reconciled,' and then as a penitent, had to undergo pen- 
alties, almost worse than death, or 'relaxed,' that is, handed 
over to the secular arm for burning — for the 'Holy Office' 
shed no blood. 



In 1492 the great work began with the persecution and 
expulsion of the Jews ; they were ejected and their wealth 
confiscated. There was an enormous crowd of exiles, who 
wandered to different shores of the Mediterranean carrying 
misery and plagues in their train. A few years later under 
supervision of Cardinal Ximenes, the Moors were also 
ordered to be converted or to go; the Morescoes or chris- 
tianized Moors, suffered constant persecution throughout 
the sixteenth century, until finally they too were expelled 
by Philip III in 1609. Jews, Moors, and Morescoes made 
up over three million of the wealthiest and mo&t intelligent 



126 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

inhabitants of Spain; the loss in trade, agriculture, and 
manufacture was incalculable; in seventy years the popu- 
lation fell from ten to six million. 

* * * 

/ The statistics of death at the hands of the Inquisition 
in Spain given by Llorente show how the institution gradu- 
ally lost force; the average number in each year steadily 
diminished after the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
* * * Down to 1809 Llorente gives as figures for Spain 
alone — burnt alive 31,912, in effigy 17,659, and imprisoned, 
etc., as penitents, 291,450— a total of 341,021. After the 
hand of Napoleon was taken off, the institution revived 
again at Eome and at Madrid ; but its teeth were gone, and 
it could do little but show a murderous will. * * * 
Yet though powerless the institution is not hopeless; the 
Catholic writers on the subject, after long silence or uneasy 
apology, now acknowledge the facts and seek to justify 
them. In the early times of the ^Holy Office' its friends 
gave it high honor; Paramo, the inquisitor, declares that 
it began with Adam and Eve ere they left Paradise ; Paul 
IV announced that the Spanish Inquisition was founded 
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; Muzarelli calls it 
'an indispensable substitute to the church for the original 
gift of miracles exercised by the apostles.' And now, again, 
from 1875 to this day, a crowd of defenders has risen up. 
Father Wieser and the Innsbruck Jesuits in their journal, 

L1877, yearn for its reestablishment ; Orty Lara in Spain, 
the Benedictine Gams in Germany, and C. Poullet in Bel- 
gium take the same tone." 

We also quote the following words of Puigblanch : "The 
Inquisition, in its relations as a tribunal, as well as in the 
laws, by which it is governed, tramples to the ground the 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 127 

rights of the citizens, by violating, in substance and in 
manner, the common rules and principles of justice, A 
code suggested and framed by fanaticism and error — a 
want of learning almost general, among the individuals 
of whom it is composed, accompanied by an omnigenous 
faculty of committing irregularities — together with the 
tyrannical oppression with which the innocent man is 
therein treated when merely indited for heresy — are all 
deducible from the premises established, and come in as 
incontrovertible arguments to prove the truth of my asser- 
tion. Busied rather in forming unhappy victims, than in 
extirpating crimes, this institution has spared no pains, 
however contrary to reason, and even to religion, as long 
as it was able to flatter its pride, and feed its ferocity. 

Secret accusation, calumny encouraged without any re- 
gard to friendship or domestic piety ; the name of the Su- 
preme Being invoked with the greatest rashness, in order 
to wring from the culprit a confession, which must neces- 
sarily carry him to the scaffold; mean cavils, perfidious 
incitements, and even gross falsehood, employed for the 
same purpose, and with the same iniquity, have all entered 
into the complicated system of the Inquisition and consti- 
tuted its chief essence and delight. Impervious prisons, 
secured with double bolts, and secluded from all communi- 
cation ; refined and overwhelming torments authorized, and 
even administered with unheard of cruelty, by judges who 
called themselves ministers of the God of peace; citizens, 
who already had paid the debt of nature, insulted in their 
memory, and their moldering remnants of mortality dug 
out to public scorn ; whole generations condemned to men- 
dicity and infamy, even before they had commenced their 
existence; blazing fagots, enkindled by the breath of im- 



128 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

placable vengeance, hidden under the parade of charity — 
such have been the component parts which have formed 
the plan, and such the deeds of this formidable and bloody 
tribunal/^ 

Puigblanch also gives the following description of the 
tortures used by the Spanish Inquisition: "Three kinds 
of torture have been generally used, viz., the pulley, the 
rack and the fires. * * * ^g ^^^ ^j^^j Iq^^ lamenta- 
tions accompanied the sharpness of the pain, the victim 
was conducted to a retired apartment, called the ^Hall of 
Torture,^ and usually situated under ground, in order that 
his cries might not interrupt the silence which reigned 
throughout the other part of the building. Here the court 
assembled; and the judges, being seated, together with 
their secretary, again questioned the prisoner respecting 
his crime, which, if he still persisted to deny they pro- 
ceeded with the execution of the sentence. 

The first torture was performed by fixing a pulley to the 
roof of the hall, with a strong hempen or grass rope passed 
through it. The executioners then seized the culprit, and 
leaving him naked to his drawers, put shackles on his feet, 
and suspended weights of one hundred pounds, to his 
ankles. His hands were then bound behind his back, and 
the rope from the pulley strongly fastened to his wrists. 
In this situation he was raised about the height of a man, 
from the ground, and in the meantime the judges coldly 
admonished him to reveal the truth. In this position as 
many as twelve stripes were sometimes inflicted on him, 
according to the inferences and weight of the offense. He 
was then suffered to fall suddenly, but in such a manner 
that neither of his feet nor the weights reached the ground, 
in order to render the shock of Lis body the greater. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 129 

The tortures of the rack also called that of Vater and 
Topes/ and the one most commonly used, was inflicted by 
stretching the victim, naked as before, on his back, along 
a wooden horse or hollow bench, with sticks across like a 
ladder, and prepared for the purpose. To this his feet, 
hands and head were strongly bound, in such a manner as 
to leave him no room to move. In this attitude he ex- 
perienced eight strong contortions in his limbs. * * * 
He was besides obliged to swallow seven pints of water, 
slowly dropped into his mouth on a piece of silk or ribbon, 
which, by the pressure of the water, glided down his throat 
BO as to produce all the horrid sensations of a person who 
is drowning. At other times his face was covered with, a 
thin piece of linen through which the water ran into his 

mouth and nostrils, and prevented him from breathing. 
* * * 

For the torture by fire, the prisoner was placed with his 
legs naked in the stocks ; the soles of his feet were then well 
greased with lard, and a blazing chafing dish applied to 
them, by the heat of which they became perfectly fried. 
When his complaints of the pain were the loudest, a board 
was placed between his feet and the fire, and he was again 
commanded to confess ; but this was taken away if he per- 
sisted in his obstinacy. This specie of torture was deemed 
the most cruel of all, but this, as well as the others, were 
indiscriminately applied to the persons of both sexes at the 
will of the judges, according to the circumstances of the 
crime, and the strength of the delinquent." 

The preceding and all the other horrors of the Inquisi- 
tion are open to God. The Catholic church has blinded 
the eyes of many to them — she has, very naturally, to the 
extent of her power, suppressed the publication of confes- 



130 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

sions that are to her discredit; but she has failed to com- 
pletely conceal her crimes. In the iniquitions treatment 
of women by the inquisitors, every law of Heaven and earth 
was trampled upon by them, that they might satiate them- 
selves with the gratification of whatever their chief desire 
might be. From the writings of M. Gavin, author of the 
"Master Key to Popery," we have selected and abridged one 
of the shorter confessions of a helpless woman, who, though 
not a christian, was in sympathy with Protestant religion, 
and hence became, as did many others who were like- 
minded, a victim to the Inquisition, and present it below : 

"I went one day (says the lady) with my mother, to 
visit the Countess Attarass, and I met there Don Fran- 
cisco Tirregon, her confessor, and second Inquisitor of the 
'Holy Office.' 

After we had drunk chocolate he asked me my age, my 
confessor's name, and many intricate questions about re- 
ligion. The severity of his countenance frightened me, 
which he perceiving, told the countess to inform me that 
he was not so severe as he looked. He then caressed 
me in a most obliging manner, presented his hand, which I 
kissed with great reverence and modesty; and, as he went 
away, he made use of this remarkable expression: 'My 
dear child, I shall remember you till the next time.' I 
did not, at the time, mark the sense of the words; for I 
was inexperienced in matters of gallantry, being, at that 
time but fifteen years old. Indeed, he unfortunately did 
remember me, for the very same night, when our whole 
family were in bed, we heard a great knocking at the door. 

The maid, who laid in the same room with me, went 
to the window, and inquired who was there. The answer 
was, 'THE HOLY INQUISITION.' On hearing this I 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 131 

screamed out, Tather ! father ! dear father, I am ruined 
for ever!' My father got up, and came to me to know 
the occasion of my crying out; I told him the Inquisitors 
were at the door. On hearing this, instead of protecting 
me, he hurried down stairs as fast as possible; and, lest 
the maid should be too slow, opened the street door him- 
self ; under such abject and slavish fears, are bigoted minds ! 
As soon as he knew they came for me, he fetched me with 
great solemnity, and delivered me to the officers with 
much submission. * * * 

I was hurried into a coach. * * * My fright was 
so great I expected to die that very night; but judge my 
surprise, when I was ushered into an apartment, decorated 
with all the elegance that taste, united with opulence, could 
bestow. 

Soon after the officers left me, a maid servant appeared 
with a silver salver, on which were sweetmeats and cinna- 
mon water. She desired me to take some refreshment be- 
fore I went to bed; I told her I could not, but should be 
glad if she could inform me whether I was to be put to 
death that night or not. 

HTo be put to death!' exclaimed she, 'you do not come 
here to be put to death, but to live like a princess, and you 
shall want for nothing in the world, but the liberty of 
going out; so pray don't be afraid, but go to bed and 
sleep easy ; for tomorrow you shall see wonders within this 
house; and as I am chosen to be your waiting-maid, I 
hope you'll be very kind to me.' I was going to ask some 
questions, but she told me she must not answer any thing 
more till the next day, but assured me that nobody would 
come to disturb me : *I am going,' said she, 'about a little 
business, but I will come back presently, for my bed is in 



132 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

the closet next yours/ so she left me for ahout a quarter 
of an hour, and then returned. She then said, 'Madam, 
pray let me know when you will be pleased to have your 
chocolate ready in the morning.' This greatly surprised 
me, so that without replying to her question I asked her 
name; — she said, 'My name is Mary.' 'Mary,' then said 
I, 'tell me whether I am brought here to die or not?' 'I 
have told you already,' replied she, 'that you came here 
to be one of the happiest ladies in the world.' 

We went to bed, but the fear of death prevented me from 
sleeping the whole night; Mary waked; she was surprised 
to find me up, but she soon rose, and after leaving me for 
about half an hour, she brought in two cups of chocolate, 
and some biscuit on a silver plate. I drank one cup of 
chocolate, and desired her to drink the other, which she 
did. When we had done, I said, 'Well, Mary, can you 
give me any account of the reasons for my being brought 
here ?' To which she answered, 'Not yet, madam, you must 
have patience,' and immediately slipped out of the room. 

About half an hour after, she brought a great quantity 
of elegant clothes, suitable to a lady of the highest rank, 
and told me I must dress myself. Among several trinkets 
which accompanied the clothes, I observed, with surprise, a 
snuff-box, in the lid of which was a picture of Don Fran- 
cisco Tirregon. This unraveled to me the mystery of my 
confinement and at the same time roused my imagination 
to contrive how to evade receiving the present. If I abso- 
lutely refused it, I thought immediate death must ensue; 
and to accept it, was giving him too much encouragement 
against my honor. At length I hit upon a medium, and 
said to Mary, 'Pray present my respects to Don Francisco 
Tirregon^ and tell him, that, as I could not bring my 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 133 

clothes along with me last night, modesty permits me to 
accept these garments which are requisite to keep me de- 
cent; but since I do not take snuff, I hope his lordship 
will excuse me in not accepting his box/ 

Mary went with my answer, and soon returned with 
Don Francisco's portrait elegantly set in gold, and richly 
embellished with diamonds. This message accompanied 
it: ^That his lordship had made a mistake; his intent 
not being to send me a snuff-box, but his portrait.' I was 
at a great loss what to do ; when Mary said, Tray, madam, 
take my poor advice ; accept of the portrait, and every thing 
else that his lordship sends you; for if you do not, he can 
compel you to do what he pleases and put you to death 
when he thinks proper, without anybody being able to 
defend you ; but if you are obliging to him,' continued she, 
^he will be very kind, and you will be as happy as a queen ; 
you will have elegant apartments to live in, beautiful gar- 
dens to range in, and agreeable ladies to visit you; there- 
fore, I advise you to send a civil answer, or even not to 
deny a visit from his lordship, or, perhaps, you may repent 
of 5^our disrespect. * * * 

I would advise you never to oppose the Holy Fathers 
will; or if you see any young ladies about, never ask them 
any questions. You may divert yourself sometimes among 
them, but must never tell them anything : three days hence 
you will dine with them; and at all times you may have 
music, and other recreations. In fine, you will be so 
happy that you will not wish to go abroad ; and when your 
time is expired, the holy fathers will send you out of this 
country, and marry you to some nobleman.' After saying 
these words she left me, overwhelmed with astonishment 
and scarce knowing what to think. As soon as I recovered 



134 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

myself, I began to look about, and finding a closet, I 
opened it, and perceived that it was filled with books : they 
were chiefly upon historical and profane subjects, but not 
any on religious matter. I chose out a book of history, and 
so passed the interval with some degree of satisfaction till 
dinner time. 

The dinner was served with the greatest elegance, and 
consisted of all that could gratify the most luxurious appe- 
tite. When dinner was over, Mary left me, and told me, 
if I wanted anything I might ring a bell, which she pointed 
out to me. 

I read a book to amuse myself during the afternoon, and 
at seven in the evening, Don Francisco came to visit me. 
* * * He saluted me with great respect, and told me, 
that he came to see me in order to show the great respect he 
had for my family, and to inform me that it was my lovers 
who had procured my confinement, having accused me in 
matters of religion ; and that the informations were taken, 
and the sentence pronounced against me, to be burnt in 
a dry pan with a gradual fire ; but that he, out of pity and 
love for my family, had stopped the execution of it. 

These words were like daggers to my heart; I dropped 
at his feet, and said^ *Ah, my Lord ! have you stopped the 
execution for ever ?' He replied, 'That belongs to yourself 
only,' and abruptly wished me good night. 

As soon as he was gone I burst into tears, when Mary 
came and asked what could make me cry so bitterly. To 
which I answered, *0 Mary! what is the meaning of the 
dry pan and gradual fire ? for I am to die by them.' 

'Madam,' said she, 'never fear, you shall see, ere long, 
the dry pan and gradual fire; but they are made for those 
who oppose the holy father's will, not for you who are so 



A J»E11SECUTED PEOPLE. 135 

good as to obey it. But pray/ says she, Vas Don Fran- 
cisco very obliging ?' *I don't know/ said I, *f or he fright- 
ened me out of my wits by his discourse; he saluted me 
with civility, but left me abruptly.' 

'Well/ said Mary, 'you do not yet know his temper: he 
is extremely obliging to them that are kind to him ; but if 
they are disobedient he is unmerciful as Nero; so, for 
your own sake, take care to oblige him in all respects: 
and now, dear madam, pray go to supper, and be easy.' I 
went to supper, indeed, and afterward to bed ; but I could 
neither eat nor sleep, for the thoughts of the dry pan and 
gradual fire deprived me of appetite and banished drowsi- 
ness. 

Early the next morning Mary said that as nobody was 
stirring, if I would promise her secrecy, she would show 
me the dry pan and gradual fire; so taking me down 
stairs, she brought me to a large room with a thick iron 
door, which she opened. Within it was an oven, with fire 
in it at the time, and a large brass upon it with a cover 
of the samC;, and a lock to it. In the next room there was 
a great wheel, covered on both sides with thick boards; 
opening a little window in the center, Mary desired me to 
look in with a candle; there I saw all the circumference 
of the wheel set with sharp razors, which made me shud- 
der. She then took me to a pit, which was full of venom- 
ous animals. On my expressing great horror at the sight, 
she said, 'Now, my good mistress, I'll tell you the use of 
these things. The dry pan is for heretics and those who 
oppose the holy father's will and pleasure; they are put 
alive into the pan, being first stripped naked; and the 
cover being locked down, the executioner begins to put a 
small fire into the oven, and by degrees he augments it. 



136 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

till the body is reduced to ashes. The wheel is designed 
for those who speak against the pope, or the holy fathers 
of the Inquisition; for they are put into the machine 
through the little wheel, which is locked after them, and 
the wheel is turned swiftly, till they are cut to pieces. 
The pit is for those who condemn the images, and refuse 
to give proper respect to ecclesiastical persons; for they 
are thrown into the pit, and so become the food of poison- 
ous animals.' 

We went back again to my chamber, and Mary said that 
another day she would show me the torments designed for 
other transgressors; but I was in such agonies at what I 
had seen, that I begged to be terrified with no more such 
sights. She soon after left me, but not without enjoining 
my strict obedience to Don Francisco; 'for if you do not 
comply with his will,' said she, 'the dry pan and gradual 
fire will be your fate.' 

The horrors which the sight of these things, and Mary's 
expressions, impressed on my mind, almost bereaved me of 
my senses and left me in such a state of stupefaction that 
I seemed to have no manner of will of my own. * * * 
To avoid the dry pan, did I entail upon myself perpetual 
infamy; and to escape the so much dreaded fire, give my- 
self up to the flames of lust. Wretched alternative, where 
the only choice is an excruciating death, or everlasting pol- 
lution ! * * * On the fourth morning Mary * * * 
conveyed me into a dismal dungeon, not eight feet in 
length; and said sternly to me, 'This is your room, and 
this lady your bed-fellow and companion.' At which words 
she bounced out of the room, and left me in the utmost 
consternation. 

After remaining a considerable time in the most dread- 
ful agonies, tears came to my relief, and I exclaimed. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 137 

'What is this place, dear lady ? Is it a scene of enchant- 
ment, or is it a hell upon earth? Alas! I have lost my 
honor and my soul forever!' The lady took me by the 
hand, and said in a sympathizing tone of voice, 'Dear 
Sister (for this is the name I shall henceforth give you), 
forbear to cry and grieve, for you can do nothing by such 
an extravagant behavior, but draw upon your^lf a cruel 
death. Your misfortunes, and those of all the ladies you 
have seen, are exactly of a piece: you suffer nothing but 
what we have suffered before you; but we dare not show 
our grief, for fear of greater evils. Pray take courage, 
and hope in God, for He will surely deliver us from this 
hellish place; but be sure you discover no uneasiness 
before Mary, who is the only instrument either of our 
torments or comfort. Have patience until we go to bed, 
and then I will venture to tell you more of the matter.' 

My perplexity and vexation were inexpressible; but my 
new companion, whose name was Leonora, prevailed on 
me to disguise my uneasiness from Mary. I dissembled 
tolerably well when she came to bring our dinners, but 
could not help remarking, in my own mind, the difference 
between this repast, and those I had before partaken of. 
This consisted only of plain, common food, and of that a 
scanty allowance, with one plate, and one knife and fork 
for us both, which she took away as soon as we had 
dined. * * * 

Leonora was as good as her word and upon my solemn 
promise of secrecy, thus began to open her mind to me. 

'My dear sister, you think your case very hard, but I 
assure you all the ladies in the house have gone through 
the same. In time you will know all their stories, as they 
hope to know yours. I suppose Mary has been the chief 



138 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

instrmneiit of your fright, as she has been of ours; and I 
warrant she has shown you some horrible places, though 
not all; and that, at the very thought of them, you were 
so terrified that you chose the same way we have done, to 
redeem yourself from death. By what hath happened to 
us we know that Don Francisco, a second inquisitor, hath 
been your Nero, your tyrant. * * * ^yg ^^g strictly 
commanded to express all the demonstrations of joy, and 
to be very merry for three days when a young lady first 
comes among us, as we did with you, and as you must now 
do with others ; but afterwards we must live like the most 
wretched prisoners, without seeing any one but Mary, and 
the other maidservants, over whom Mary hath a kind of 
superiority for she acts as housekeeper. We all dine in 
the great hall three times a week; and when one of the 
inquisitors has a mind for one of his slaves, Mary leads her 
to his apartment. * * * There are at the present time 
fifty-two young ladies in the house, but we annually lose 
six or eight, though we know not what becomes of them 
or whither they are sent. * * * Our continual tor- 
ment is to reflect that when they are tired of any of the 
ladies, they secretly put to death those they pretend to 
send away, for it is natural to think that they have too 
much policy to suffer their atrocious and infernal vil- 
lainies to be discovered. Hence our situation is miserable 
indeed.' ^^ 

The following accounts of martyrdoms that took place 
during the Inquisition axe selected from '^Foxe's Book of 
Martyrs" : 

"In the auto-da-fe which was celebrated at Valladolid 
in 1559, Don Carlos de Sessa, a nobleman of Verona, was 
among the number of those who were burned for having 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 139 

DON CARLOS DE SESSA 

espoused the doctrines of the Reformation. He was ar- 
rested at Logrogna, and confined in the secret prison of 
the Inquisition at Valladolid. After undergoing the usual 
examinations, his sentence was read to him on the seventh 
of October, by which he was informed that he was to suffer 
death on the following day. Unmoved by the tidings, de 
Seesa requested pen and ink, and wrote his confession, 
which was not a recantation of his faith, but a firm ad- 
herence to the reformed principles. 

In these principles, he said — ^the very reverse of those 
which were taught by the apostate church of Rome — ^he 
was determined to die, and would give himself to God 
through the merits of his Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
His persecutors vehemently exhorted him during the night, 
and on the following morning to retract, but without suc- 
cess. He was accordingly gagged, that he might be pre- 
vented from stating his principles to the people. When he 
was fastened to the stake, the gag was taken from his 
mouth, and he was again exhorted to return to the Romish 
faith, in which case the Inquisitors would have extended 
their mercy so far as to have strangled him first before 
he was burned; but with a loud voice, and great firmness, 
de Sessa replied, 'If I had sufiicient time, I would convince 
you that you are lost. * * * Hasten to light the wood 
which is to consume me.' Fire was then set to the pile, 
and after great suffering, his body was consumed to ashes.'' 

DONNA MARIA DE BOHORQUES 

We have another example of steadfast adherence to the 
faith of the gospel, in the case of Donna Maria de Bohor- 



140 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

ques. * * * She had just completed her twenty-first 
year, when she was arrested on suspicion of being a Lu- 
theran. Under the instruction of D. Juan Gil, bishop of 
Tortosa, she was perfectly acquainted with the Latin 
language, and had made considerable progress in Greek. 
She knew the gospels by heart, and was deeply read in 
those commentaries which explain, in a Lutheran sense, 
the text referring to justification by faith, good works, the 
sacraments, and the characteristics of the true church. 

"Donna Maria was confined in the secret prisons of the 
Inquisition, where she avowed the doctrines imputed to her, 
and defended against the arguments of the priests who 
visited her. * * * Sentence was passed upon her as 
an obstinate heretic. In the interval between her condem- 
nation and the autO'da^fe, at which she was to suffer, the 
inquisitors made every exertion to bring her back to the 
Eomish faith. They sent to her successively two Jesuit 
and two Dominican priests, who labored with great zeal for 
her conversion; but they returned without having effected 
their object, full of admiration of the talents she displayed, 
and regretting the obstinacy with which she persisted in 
what they supposed, a damnable heresy. * * * gj^g 
told them that she came to prison fully satisfied of the 
orthodoxy of the creed which she held, and that she had 
been confirmed in her belief by the evident futility of the 
arguments brought against it. 

At the stake, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who had just 
abjured the Lutheran doctrines, exhorted Donna Maria to 
follow his example. The weakness of this apostate for a 
moment overcame her, and she silenced him by language 
rather of contempt than of pity. * * * All that poor 
Juan Ponce de Leon gained by his apostasy was, that he 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 141 

was not burned alive, but first, strangled. * * * The 
attendant priests, moved by the youth and the talents of 
Donna Maria, offered her this milder death if she would 
merely repeat the creed. With this offer she readily com- 
plied; but having finished it, she immediately began to 
explain its articles. * * * This * * * was speedily 
internipted, when Donna Maria was strangled by the ex- 
ecutioner, and her body consumed to ashes." 

MARC ANTONIO DE DOMINIS 

"In the beginning of the seventeenth century. Marc An- 
tonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, was considered 
one of the most learned men of his age, particularly in 
divinity and history, both sacred and profane. His learning 
made him inquisitive, and it was at length discovered that 
he had embraced the doctrines of the Eef ormation. Having 
written a large work on the christian church, he was exceed- 
ingly desirous of having it published during his lifetime; 
but this he was aware could not be accomplished in Italy. Sir 
Henry Wotten, who was at that time the English ambassa- 
dor at Venice, gave Dominis a letter from James I, King 
of Britain, inviting him to England. This invitation was 
accepted, and, enjoying the patronage of James, who settled 
a pension on him suitable to his dignity, he published the 
work which he had so much at heart. * * * 

The unhappy prelate forgot, on this occasion, what he 
had often repeated in his works — ^namely, that the court 
of Eome never forgets or forgives an affront. He accord- 
ingly set out for Kome, in spite of all the arguments of his 
friends in England to the contrary, who represented to 
him the danger to which he exposed himself. * * * No 



14^ MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

sooner did he arrive in Italy, than he was arrested and 
confined in the prison of the Inquisition at Kome. His 
trial went on very slowly, and he at length died in prison. 
* * * Disappointed in their expectation of putting 
Dominis to death by the hand of the executioner, the in- 
quisitors determined to inflict the punishment proposed 
on his dead body. On the twenty-first of December, 1634, 
his sentence was read as follows : 'That Marc Antonio de 
Dominis, having been convicted of heresy, was found to 
have incurred all the censures and penalties appointed to 
heretics by the sacred canons and papal constitutions; — 
they accordingly declared him to be deprived of honors, 
prerogatives, and ecclesiastical dignities; condemned his 
memory ; excommunicated him from the ecclesiastical court, 
and delivered over his dead body and effigy into the power 
of the governor of the city, that he might inflict on it 
the punishment due, according to the rule and practice of 
the church. And, finally, they commanded his impious 
and heretical writings to be publicly burned, and declared 
all his effects to be forfeited to the exchequer of the holy 
Inquisition/ This sentence was carried into effect the same 
day, amidst a vast concourse of spectators, with all the 
mock solemnity which characterizes the proceeding of the 
infamous tribunal.'* 

DON MIGUEL JUAN ANTONIO SOLANO 

"The following account of the persecution of a Spanish 
Protestant priest, who was imprisoned in the Inquisition 
of Saragossa in 1802, is particulariy deserving of notice, 
showing, as it does, the cruelty of the 'Holy Office,' even 
in the nineteenth century : Don Miguel Juan Antonio So- 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 143 

lano, a native of Verdun, in Arragon, was vicar of Esco, 
in the diocese of Jaca. His benevolence and exemplary 
conduct endeared him to his parishioners. * * * 

A long and severe illness which made him a cripple for 
life, withdrew the good vicar of Esco from these active pur- 
suits, and limited his employment to the perusal of the books 
which his little library afforded. Providentially the Bible 
was one of them. Solano read the records of revelation, 
with a sincere desire to embrace religious truth as he found 
it there; and having gradually cleared and arranged his 
views, drew up a little system of divinity, which agreed in 
the main points with the fundamental tenets of the Protes- 
tant churches. His conviction of the Eoman Catholic 
errors became so strong, that he determined to lay his 
book before the bishop of the diocese, asking his pastoral 
help and advice upon that most important subject. An 
answer to his arguments was promised; but despairing, 
after a lapse of time, to obtain it, Solano applied to the 
faculty of divinity of the University of Saragossa. The 
reverend doctors sent the book to the Inquisition ; and the 
infirm vicar of Esco was lodged in the prison of the holy 
tribunal of Saragossa in 1802. It seems that seme humane 
persons contrived his escape soon after, and conveyed him 
to Oleron, the nearest French town; but Solano having 
taken time to consider his case, came to the heroic resolu- 
tion of asserting the truth in the very face of death; and 
returned of his own accord to the inquisitorial prisons. 

A fresh examination of the witnesses was ordered, dur- 
ing which time the inquisitors entreated Solano to avert 
his now imminent danger. Nothing, however, could move 
him. He said he well knew that death awaited him, but 



144 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

no human fear would ever make him swerve from the 
truth. The first sentence being confirmed, nothing re- 
mained but the exequator of the supreme. Arce, however, 
suspended it, and ordered an inquiry into the mental sanity 
of the prisoner. As nothing appeared to support this plea, 
Solano would have died at the stake, had not Providence 
snatched him from the hands of papal defenders of the 
faith. A dangerous illness seized him in the prison, where 
he had lingered three years. The efforts to convert him 
were on this occasion renewed with increased ardor. * * * 
The vicar showed grateful sense for all that was done for 
him; but declared that he could not renounce his religious 
persuasion without offending God, by acting treacherously 
against the truth. * * * The physician warned him 
to improve the short time which he had to live. *I am 
in the hands of God,' answered Solano, 'and have nothing 
else to do.' 

Thus died, in 1805, the vicar of Esco. He was denied 
christian burial, and his body privately interred within 
the enclosure of the Inquisition, near the back gate of the 
building, towards the Ebro." 

IN PORTUGAL 

In another Book of Martyrs, we find the following ac- 
count of the Inquisition in Portugal: 

"The Inquisition belonging to Portugal is exactly upon 
a similar plan to that of Spain, having been instituted 
much about the same time, and put under the same regu- 
lations. The Inquisitors allow the torture to be used only 
three times, but during those times it is so severely in- 
flicted, that the prisoner either dies under it, or continues 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 145 

always after a cripple, and suffers the severest pains upon 
every change of weather. We shall give an ample descrip- 
tion of the severe torments occasioned by the torture, from 
the account of one who suffered it the three respective 
times, but happily survived the cruelties he underwent. 

At the first time of torturing, six executioners entered, 
* * * and laid him upon his back on a kind of stand, 
elevated a few feet from the floor. The operation com- 
menced by putting an iron collar round his neck, and a 
ring to each foot, which fastened him to the stand. His 
limbs being thus stretched out, they wound two ropes 
round each thigh; which ropes being passed under the 
scaffold, through holes made for that purpose, were all 
drawn tight at the same instant of time, by four of the 
men, on a given signal. 

It is easy to conceive that the pains which immediately 
succeeded were intolerable; the ropes, which were of a 
small size, cut through the prisoner's flesh to the bone, 
making the blood gush out at eight different places thus 
bound at a time. As the prisoner persisted in not making 
any confession of what the inquisitors required, the ropes 
were drawn in this manner four times successively. 

The manner of inflicting the second torture was as fol- 
lows : They forced his arms backwards so that the palms 
of his hands were turned outward behind him; when, by 
means of a rope that fastened them together at the wrists, 
and which was turned by an engine, they drew them by 
degrees nearer each other, in such a manner that the back 
of each hand touched, and stood exactly parallel to each 
other. In consequence of this violent contortion, both his 
shoulders became dislocated, and a considerable quantity 
of blood issued from his mouth. This torture was repeated 



146 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

thrice ; after which he was again taken to the dungeon, and 
the surgeon set the dislocated bones. 

Two months after the second torture, the prisoner, being 
a little recovered, was again ordered to the torture-room, 
and there, for the last time, made to undergo another 
kind of punishment, which was inflicted twice without any 
intermission. The executioners fastened a thick iron chain 
round his body, which, crossing at the breast, terminated 
at the wrists. They then placed him with his back against 
a thick board, at each extremity whereof was a pulley, 
through which there ran a rope that caught the end of the 
chain at his wrists. The executioner then, stretching the 
end of this rope by means of a roller, placed at a distance 
behind him, pressed or bruised his stomach in proportion 
as the ends of the chains were drawn tighter. They tor- 
tured him in this manner to such a degree that his wrists, 
as well as his shoulders, were quite dislocated. They were, 
however, soon set by the surgeons; but the barbarians, not 
yet satisfied with this species of cruelty, made him imme- 
diately undergo the like torture a second time, which he 
sustained (though, if possible, attended with keener pains) 
with equal constancy and resolution. After this, he was 
again remanded to his dungeon, attended by the surgeon 
to dress his bruises and adjust the part dislocated, and 
here he continued till their auto-da-fe, or jail delivery, 
when he was discharged, crippled and diseased for life." 

ASAAD SHIDIAK 

There have been converts from Eoman Catholicism; but 
the church itself has never been reclaimed, and those of 
its members who have been converted have often been 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 147 

made to suffer much at its hands. The experience of 
Asaad Shidiak was given quite fully in a Missionary- 
Herald many years ago, and we give to our readers the 
following, which has been gathered from that and many 
other sources, and is his own statement at a time when 
for his faith and constancy he was undergoing persecu- 
tions. He fled from a convent where he had been forcibly 
detained, and afterwards was reported as mad. Some, it 
was said, "especially the great ones, pitied the poor maniac 
(as they called him) and sent in quest of him in every 
direction, lest peradventure he might be found starving in 
some cavern, or floating in the sea, or dashed in pieces at 
the bottom of a precipice." 

"Public Statement of Asaad Shidiak. 
Beyroot, March, 1826. 
Respected Brethren and Friends: Since many have 
heard a report that I have become insane ; and others that 
I have become a heretic; I have wished to write an ac- 
count of myself in a few words, and then let every reflect- 
ing man judge for himself, whether I am mad, or am 
slandered ; whether following after heresy, or after the truth 
of the orthodox faith. Every serious man of understand- 
ing will concede that true religion is not that of compul- 
sion^ nor that which may be bought and sold; but that 
which proceeds from attending to the word of God, believ- 
ing it, and endeavoring to walk according to it to the glory 
of God; and that every one, whose object is solely con- 
tention, and who does not obey the truth, but follows after 
unrighteousness, is far distant from the true religion. 
This is the standard by which I would be judged by every- 
one who reads this narrative. 



148 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

About eight or nine months ago, I was employed by an 
American by the name of J. King, in teaching him the 
Syriac language. At that time I was very fond of engag- 
ing with him in disputatious conversations, to prove him 
to be in error; but with none but worldly motives, to 
display my talents and knowledge, and acquire the praise 
of men. After this, I applied myself to reading of the 
word of God with intense interest. Now this person wrote 
a farewell letter to his friends, in which he excuses him- 
self from uniting with the Eoman Catholic church. After 
reading this letter, I found, in the Holy Scriptures, many 
passages, which made against the opinions of the writer. 
These passages I selected, and from them and other evi- 
dences, composed a reply to him; but when I was copying 
the first rough draught of the same, and had arrived to 
the answer to the last of the objections, which he said 
prevented his becoming a member of the Roman Catholic 
church, viz : that the Roman Catholic church teaches that 
it is wrong for the common people to possess or read the 
word of God, but that they ought to learn from the popes 
and councils, I observed the writer brings a proof against 
the doctrine from the prophet Isaiah, viz : *To the law and 
to the testimony, if they speak not according to my word, 
it is because there is no light in them.^ 

While I was endeavoring to explain this passage also, 
according to the views of the Roman Catholic church, with 
no other object than the praise of men, and other worldly 
motives, I chanced to read the twenty-ninth chapter of 
Isaiah, from the fifteenth verse to the end. I read, and 
was afraid. I meditated upon the chapter a long while, 
and feared that I was doing what I did, with a motive far 
different from the only proper one, viz : the glory and the 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE 149 

pleasure of God. I therefore threw by my paper without 
finishing the copy, and applied myself diligently to the 
reading of the prophecy of Isaiah. I had wished to find 
in the prophets, plain proofs, by which to establish beyond 
contradiction, that Jesus Christ is the Messiali, so long 
expected from ancient days; proofs that might be made 
use of in answer to Moslems and Jews. While I was thus 
searching, I found various passages, that would bear an 
explanation according to my views, but did not find them 
sufficient to enforce conviction on others, until I finally 
came to the fifty-second chapter, fourteenth verse, and 
onward to the end of the next chapter. 

On finding this testimony, my heart rejoiced, and was 
exceeding glad, for it removed many dark doubts from 
my mind also. From that time, my desire to read the 
New Testament, that I might discover the best means of 
acting according to the doctrines of Jesus, was greatly 
increased. I endeavored to divest myself of all selfish bias, 
and loved more and more to inquire into religious subjects. 
I saw and continue to see, many of the doctrines of the 
Eoman Catholic church, which I could not believe, and 
which I found opposed to the truths of the gospel; and I 
wished much to find some of her best teachers to explain 
them to me, that I might see how they proved them from 
the Holy Scriptures. As I was reading an appendix to a 
copy of the sacred Scriptures, printed at Rome by the 
Propaganda, and searching out the passages referred to, 
for proving the duty of worshiping saints, and other simi- 
lar doctrines, I found that these proofs failed altogether of 
establishing the points in question, and that to infer such 
doctrines from such premises, was even worthy of ridicule. 
Among other things, in this appendix, I found the very 



150 MART YES IN ALL AGES. 

horrible Neronian doctrines, that it is our duty to destroy 
heretics. Now everyone knows, that whoever does not be- 
lieve that the pope is infallible, is a heretic in his opinions. 

This doctrine is not merely that it is allowable to kill 
heretics, but that we are bound to do it. From this I was 
the more established in my convictions against the doc- 
trines of the pope, and saw that they were the doctrines of 
the ravenous beast, and not of the gentle Lamb. After I 
had read this I asked one of the priests in Beyroot re- 
specting this doctrine, and he assured me that it was even 
so as I had read. I then wished to go to some place, 
though it might be a distant country, that I might find 
some man of the Eoman Catholic church sufficiently learned 
to prove the doctrine above alluded to. 

After this, as I was at Beyroot teaching a few Greek 
youths the Arabic grammar, I received a letter from his 
holiness the Maronite patriarch, saying that if I did not 
cease from all assistance whatever to the English, and that 
if I did not leave them within one day, I should, ipso facto, 
fall under the heaviest excommunication. 

Thinking, as I did, that obeying my superiors, in all 
things not sinful, was well and good, I did not delay to 
leave, and so went to my friends at Hadet ; but still think- 
ing very much on the subject of religion, so that some 
people thought me melancholy. I loved exceedingly to 
converse on religious subjects; indeed I took no pleasure 
in any worldly concerns, and found all worldly possessions 
vain. After this I received a second letter from his holi- 
ness the patriarch, in which he said thus : 'After we had 
written you the first letter, we wrote you a second; see 
that you act according to it. And if you fulfill all that 
was commanded in it, and come up to us when we come 




xeciiticns in the Early Centuries 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 151 

to Kesran, we will provide you a situation;' but I saw 
that nothing, in which I was accustomed to take delight, 
pleased me any longer. I returned again, after some time, 
to Beyroot; and after I had been there no long time, 
Hoory Nicolas arrived, brother to his holiness the reverend 
patriarch, with a request from the latter, to come and see 
him, which I hastened to do, and that Hoory Nicolas then 
began to converse with me, in the way of reprimand, for 
being in connection with the English. I replied that, as 
we ought not to deny the unity of God, because the Mus- 
sulmans believe it, so we ought not to hate the gospel 
because the English love it. He then began to tell me of 
the wish of his holiness the reverend patriarch, that I 
should come out to him, and of his great love for me ; and 
said that he (the patriarch) had heard that I had received 
thirty or forty purses of money from the English ; and he 
assured me of their readiness not to suffer this to be any 
hindrance to my coming out from them. 

Now if my object were money, as some seem to think, 
I had then a fair opportunity to tell him a falsehood, and 
say, *I indeed received from the English that sum; but I 
have expended so and so, and cannot leave them unless I 
restore the whole.' In this way I might have contrived to 
take what I wished, yet I did not so answer him, but de- 
clared to him the truth, how much wages I had received, 
and which was nothing extraordinary. He then gave me a 
paper from his holiness, the patriarch, in which he says, 
*You will have received from us an answer, requesting that 
when we come to Alma, you will come up and see us. We 
expect your presence, and, if God please, we will provide 
you some proper situation, with an income that shall be 
sufficient for your sustenance. Delay not your coming, 



152 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

lest the present happy opportunity should pass by.' Know- 
ing, as I did, that many people supposed my object in con- 
tinuing with the English to be gain, I did not delay ful- 
filling the request of his reverence, hoping to remove this 
suspicion, and to enjoy an opportunity of speaking the 
truth without being hired to do it. 

So, about the seventh of January, I left Beyroot, with 
Hoory Nicolas and arrived at Der Alma the same night. 
His holiness the patriarch was not there. On the next 
day when he came, I met him and saluted him in the road. 
In the evening he called me into his chamber and began 
to ask me questions, that he might discover what I was; 
and I answered him telling him the whole truth, although 
this course was opposed to my personal convenience. At 
this he seemed surprised, for he must have perceived it 
was contrary to what he had been accustomed to see 
in me. Afterwards when I declared to him that I never 
had before been a believer, according to the true living 
faith, he was probably still more astonished. He then 
asked me if I believed as the Eomish church believed. I 
again told him the truth, that I did not. He asked then 
what was my faith, and I answered in the following pur- 
port: 'True and living faith, must be divine, connected 
with hope, love and repentance, and that all these virtues 
are the gifts of God, etc. ; that I believed the truth as God 
had inspired it ; and that it would be but a lie if I should 
say that I believed as the Eomish church does, while in 
fact I do not. I must have proofs.' 

After some conversation like this, he told me that this 
doctrine of mine was heretical, and that as long as I re- 
mained in this state of opinion, he would suffer no one to 
have intercourse with me in buying and selling, etc. This 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 153 

prohibition of his brought to my mind the words in Rev. 
13:17, 'He causeth all — to receive a mark,' etc., 'and 
no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark 
of the name of the beast/ Then he gave me to understand 
that if, after three days, I did not get back out of this 
state, I must no more enter the church. At other times, 
he wished me to swear by the eucharist and by the gospel, 
that my faith was like the faith of the Roman Catholic 
church. He asked me if I was a Bible man; I replied, 'I 
do not follow the opinions of the Bible men; but if you 
think me a Bible man on account of the opinions I have 
advanced, very well.' 

The sum of what I said was, that without evidence I 
could not believe what the Romish church believes. From 
that time, after three days, I did not enter the church for 
a space. Some time passed again, and the patriarch in- 
quired of me my faith. I then explained to him what I 
believed respecting the unity and trinity of God, and that 
the Messiah was one person with two natures, and that the 
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son. Then 
arose a disputation about who is the vicar that Christ has 
appointed to explain His law. I answered in substance as 
I afterwards did in writing, that by reason, and learning, 
and prayer to God, with purity of motive, we may know 
from the Holy Scriptures, everything necessary to our sal- 
vation. This was the purport of my reply which perhaps 
was not expressed with sufficient clearness, or perhaps I 
was not able to say it in the manner that was appropriate, 
for such a tumult and storm were excited in the company 
that they seemed to me to be intent on overcoming me by 
dint of vociferation rather than by argument and to drown 
my voice, rather than to understand my opinions. 



154 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

When, after some days, came Bishop Abdalla Blabul and 
Padre Bermardus of Gzier, the patriarch one day called me 
to them in his chamber and asked me what I wished, 
whether money or office, or whatever it might be, promis- 
ing to gratify me, speaking of his love to me and of his 
great interest in my welfare. These professions I know to 
be sincere, but they are according to the world, and not 
according to the gospel. I assured him that I wanted 
nothing of the things he had mentioned ; that I was sub- 
missive and obedient to him ; and that if he thought of me, 
that I had taken money of the English, he was welcome to 
shut me up in my chamber as in a prison, and take from 
me everything that I possessed; that I wished from them 
merely my necessary food and clothing and that I would 
give them this assurance in writing. The bishop and 
priest then begged me, in presence of the patriarch, to say 
that my faith was like that of the Eomish church. I 
replied that I feared to tell a falsehood by saying a thing 
while actually, in my reason, I did not believe it. 

*But,' said they, 'the patriarch here will absolve you 
from the sin of the falsehood.' I turned to the patriarch 
and put the question whether he would so absolve me. He 
answered that he would. I said, 'What the law of nature 
itself condemns, it is out of the power of any man to make 
lawful.' He then again asked me what I wished to do. 
I said, 'I wish to go and see the Armenian patriarch 
Gregory, and inquire of him what I ought to do.' He 
consented, and requested me, when I had done this, to 
return to him, to which I agreed. I was accompanied by 
a priest from a station of the patriarch to the college of 
Ain Warka, where I found Hoory Joseph Shaheen, with 
whom I conversed a considerable time, and with great 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 155 

pleasure; for I found that for himself he did not believe 
that the pope was infallible in matters of faith, that is to 
say, unless in concert with the congregated church. I 
then began to confess to him : but when I saw that he held 
steadfastly some opinions for no other reason than that 
the church so believed, and without bringing any proper 
evidence of the fact, viz., from councils or from the fathers, 
and burst out upon me with exceeding bitter words, say- 
ing, 'Know that the church neither deceives, nor is de- 
ceived, and be quiet;' and when I wished him to instruct 
me according to the word of God, with the simple object 
of glorifying God and fulfilling His will, I saw that he 
was not disposed to support any opinion because it was 
according to the word of God, but because so thought the 
church ; and I saw him also ready to retain these opinions, 
although I should bring the strongest evidences against 
them from the Holy Scriptures. He told me that it was 
impossible for him to teach anything contrary to the coun- 
cil of Trent. So I found I could not receive his system, 
because, though you should show him that it was wrong, 
he would not give it up, lest with it he should be obliged 
to give up his office. I therefore told him, 'You are bound, 
i. e., shut up as between walls, by the doctrines of the pope 
and the council of Trent.' 

•In conversation on the images, he would have proved 
their propriety from Baronius' church history. We found 
this author quoting the sacred Scriptures to prove that our 
Savior sent a picture of Himself to the king of Abgar. I 
declared that it was false, in so far as he stated that the 
gospel made any such statement, and on that account I 
could not believe the story. To this he gave me no answer. 
After this, as we were reading the book, and found a 



156 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

statement respecting the bishops collected in Constanti- 
nople, to the number of three hundred and thirteen; that 
they decreed the abolition of the use of images, because it 
was idolatrous, and that in the clearest terms, I asked him 
the question, *If an assembly composed of the bishops of 
the church were infallible, how is it that this council is 
said to have committed an error?' 

About this time I heard that a certain individual wished 
to converse with me on the subject of religion, which re 
joiced me exceedingly and I was impatient for an inter- 
view. He came on a Sabbath day to Ain Warka for the 
study of the Arabic grammar, according to his custom, 
and we had a short conversation together on works unlaw- 
ful on the Sabbath day, and other subjects. He then ex- 
cused himself from further conversation for want of time ; 
but promised that when we should meet again he hoped to 
have a sufficient opportunity to dwell on these subjects at 
large. I continued at Ain Warka the whole week, reading 
with the rest at prayers and confessing to Hoory Joseph 
above mentioned; and on the next Lord's day, the Ar- 
menian priest aforesaid came again, and I fully expected 
to have time and opportunity to ascertain his opinions; 
but I was disappointed again; for he wished to have the 
dispute carried on in writing, and to have an assistant 
with him, with other conditions. In these circumstances 
I failed of my object ; but was on the whole more inclined 
than before to receive the doctrines of the Romish church ; 
since the priest had promised to bring his evidence, on all 
points, from the word of God, that they (the papists) 
were walking in light and not in darkness. 

At this time one informed me that his holiness. Bishop 
Jacob, superior of the convent of Bzumar, wished to 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 157 

see me. And because Hoory Joseph at first told me that 
this state in which I had fallen was a temptation of Satan, 
and at one time showed me that it was usual for people, 
when they came to the age of manhood, to be tempted on 
the subject of their religion, and at another, assured me 
that this was a state of delirium: — and again, because I 
had heard formerly that this Bishop Jacob had himself 
been delirious, and that he was a man of information, I 
wished very much to see him ; and on the same day I went 
to Hoory Joseph and declared to him plainly my opinions, 
and showed him that the beast mentioned in the Kevela- 
tion was a figure, as the lamb evidently was, and how 
dreadful must be the torments of those who worship the 
image of the beast. I then disclosed to him my intention 
of going up to the convent of Bzumar, where were the 
patriarch Gregory, Bishop Jacob, and the Armenian priest 
already mentioned. 

I set off the same day, and on my arrival saluted the 
patriarch, and on the same night reasoned on the subjects 
of faith, hope and love. It appeared that the patriarch's 
opinion was^ that a man may be possessed of living faith, 
faith unto salvation, although he should feel nothing in 
his heart. I answered him with a quotation from St. Paul, 
'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and 
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation;' but 
this did not convince him. He explained the heart to 
mean the will. It then appeared to me that he was not a 
true believer, and from that time forward I could not 
believe him, as I would believe a real christian, but I 
wished to hear his worldly arguments. On the following 
day I asked him how it could be said that the pope is 
infallible if there were no proofs of the fact to be brought. 



158 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

I asked him if this pretension of the pope was that of an 
apostle, or a prophet; if an apostle, or a prophet, he could 
not be believed mithout miracles, and that we christians 
were not to believe anyone, though he were to bring down 
fire from Heaven. His replies to me were weak; and 
after considerable conversation on what is the church of 
Christ, on the ignorance that is pardonable, etc., he began 
to prove that if the pope is not infallible, then there is 
no religion^ no gospel, and even no God, — ^but I observed 
all his proofs so weak, that I could not be convinced, and 
I fell into deep perplexity as to what I should do. Por 
sometimes I greatly endeavored to submit my judgment to 
his rules and opinions, and made these efforts until my 
very head would ache. The next day I asked him what was 
that great city, ruling over the kings of the earth, men- 
tioned in Rev. 17: 18? After he had brought his book 
of commentaries, he answered that it was Rome, which is 
so called spiritual Babylon, or Babel, and after wishing 
me to yield to his opinion or that of the book, he said 
nothing more. From this time I was with the patriarch 
every day for three or four hours, and his best advice to 
me was to pray to St. Antony of Padua, together with one 
repetition of the Lord's prayer, and one of Hail Mary, 
etc., every day for three days. When I was thus in doubt 
from the weakness of their proofs, one of the monks said 
to me, 'If you wish to know good tobacco, ask the patriarch.^ 
I hoped that this priest would explain to me those doc- 
trines of the Romish church, which I could not believe ; so 
I went into his chamber and questioned him very partic- 
ularly on all points. He expressed his wish that we might 
discuss together all the points one by one, but on condition 
that the patriarch Joseph should appoint him to do so. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 159 

He told me he had in his possession a book refuting the 
opinions of Luther and Calvin. I begged permission to 
read it; but he refused, telling me that the doctrines of 
the church all remained unrefuted. He wished me to go 
down to the patriarch Joseph on this business. So after 
a stay of four days from my arrival, I departed for Ain 
Warka according to my promise to Hoory Joseph. 

Here I found one of my friends of whom I had heard 
that he had been very much astonished at my connection 
with the Bible men. After I had seen him, and had con- 
versed with him a little on some points, he would no 
longer hear me, fearing among other things lest he should 
be crazed. When we touched on the subject of the great 
city above mentioned, he told me that he had seen a book 
of commentaries on Revelation, which made the city clearly 
to be Rome. At this I wondered greatly, since the mean- 
ing was so clear, that not even the teachers of the Romish 
church herself could deny it. I then finished my confes- 
sion to Hoory Joseph Shaheen, and about sunset the same 
day went down to the patriarch to the convent Alma. He 
requested me again to write a paper stating that my faith 
was according to the faith of the Romish church. From 
this I excused myself, begging that such a thing might 
not be required of me, for the council of Trent had added 
nothing to the rule of faith, which was established by that 
of Nice, which begins, 'I believe in one God, etc' A short 
space after I gave him my advice with modest arguments 
and mild suggestions, on his duty to cause the gospel to be 
preached in the church among the Maronite people; and 
offered him the opinion that this should be done by the 
priests in the vulgar language every Sabbath day, for the 
space of one or two hours; and if this should appear too 



160 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

burdensome to the people, to take off from them some of 
the feast days. After this I remained silent in my cham- 
ber, near to his own; and as there came to me a few of 
the deacons of the patriarch, and others, I read to them 
at their request in the New Testament printed in Rome, — 
but in a little time after, I entered my room, and found 
in it none of all the books that had been there, neither 
New Testament, nor any other, and I knew that the patri- 
arch had given the order for this purpose, for he reproved 
me for reading the gospel to them, but he could accuse me 
of no false or erroneous explanations, or that I taught them 
anything heretical. 

One day after this, he called me to his presence and 
began to threaten me in a most unusual manner. I said, 
^hat do you wish of me, your reverence? What have I 
done, and what would you have me do? What is my sin, 
except that I conversed with some individuals, showing 
them the errors of the church of Rome T Then he requested 
me again, to say that I believed as did that church, and 
said, grasping me firmly by the chin, ^See how I will take 
you if you do not repent/ I begged him to appoint some- 
one to show me the truth, by the way of discussion, but he 
would not_, and continued expressing his own sentiment, 
that we are bound to hold fast to the church, even to such 
a length that if she should even reject the gospel, we 
should reject it, too.' 

And here I wish to say a word to every reader that 
regards and loves the truth; how does such doctrine ap- 
pear to you? and how could I believe in all which the 
Romish church holds, without knowing all of it? and how 
could I say, without a lie, that I believe, when I do not 
believe ? 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 161 

When I saw the patriarch breaking out with an exceed- 
ing loud and unusual voice, I was afraid that I should be 
found among *the fearful/ (Rev. 21:8) and rose to depart. 
When I reached the door, I turned and said to him, 'I 
will hold fast the religion of Jesus Christ, and I am 
ready for the sake of it to shed my blood ; and though you 
should all become infidels, yet will not I;' and so left the 
room. 

One of my friends told me that he had suggested to the 
patriarch the grand reason why I did not believe in the 
pope, which was^ that among other doctrines of his, he 
taught that he could not commit an error, and that now, 
though a pope should see any one of his predecessors had 
erred, he could not say this, for fear that he also should 
appear to be an unbeliever. This friend also told me that 
the patriarch wondered how I should pretend that I held 
to the christian religion and still conversed in such abusive 
terms against it; and I also wondered, that after he saw 
this, he should cot be willing so much as to ask me, in 
mildness and self-possession and forbearance, for what 
reasons I was unwilling to receive the doctrines of the 
pope, or to say I believed as he did; but he would not 
consent that the above mentioned Armenian priest should 
hold a discussion with me, and more than this laid every 
person, and even his own brother, under excommunication, 
if he should presume to dispute or converse with me on 
the subject of religion. Under this prohibition from con- 
versation, and this bereavement of books, from what quar- 
ter could I get the necessary evidence to believe in their 
opinions ? 

Another cause I had of wonder, which was, that not one 
of all with whom I conversed, after he saw me to be heret- 



162 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

ical and declining from the truth, thought proper to advise 
me to use the only means of becoming strong in the faith, 
viz., prayer to God the Most High, and searching His Holy 
Word, which a child may understand. I wondered, too, 
that they should ridicule me and report me abroad as one 
mad; and after all this, be so fearful to engage in a dis- 
pute with the mad man lest he should vanquish them in 
argument, or spoil their understandings or turn them 
away from the truth. 

After some time came the bishop of Beyroot. I gave 
him the usual salutation, and was greatly rejoiced to see 
him, as I knew the excellency of his understanding and his 
quickness of apprehension, and hoped that after some dis- 
cussion between us, he would explain the truth, and that 
he would rest on clear evidence to support his views. But 
in this case also, I was disappointed ; for one day, when T 
asked him a question, and during the whole short conversa- 
tion which followed, whenever I began to bring evidence 
against him, he was angry, and finally drove me from my 
chamber in a fury, and that with no other cause, as he 
pretended, than that he did not wish to converse with a 
heretic. 

Some time after this, Hoory Joseph Shaheen came down 
to the convent of Alma, and I endeavored to get him to 
unite with me in persuading the patriarch to send out 
among the people, preachers of the gospel or that there 
should be preaching in the churches as before mentioned; 
but he would not co-operate with me in this, and I was 
again disappointed. 

Then, when the patriarch and the bishop of Beyroot 
wished to dispute with me, I expressed the hope that the 
discussion might be iu meekness and without anger. It 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 163 

was concluded first that the discussion should be in writ- 
ing, that no one afterwards should be able to alter what 
he had once said. They then commenced by asking me 
questions. The first question was, in amount, this, *Has 
the Messiah given us a new law?' 

At first I did not grant that He had, strictly speaking, 
given us a new law, and quoted the words of John, that 
*The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ;' but when I aftenvards saw that by ^a 
new law,' they meant merely the gospel, or the New Tes- 
tament, I answered in the affirmative. They then asked 
me if there was not to be found in this ^new law' some 
obscurities. I answered, 'Yes.' They then asked me, 
'Suppose any difference of sentiment should arise between 
the teachers of Christianity, how are we to distinguish the 
truth from the error?' I answered thus: — 'We have no 
other means of arriving at the truth than by searching the 
word of God with learning and reason, and inquiry of 
learned spiritual teachers, with purity of motive and with 
disinterestedness of inclination. If the obscurities of the 
word of God cannot be understood by these means, our 
ignorance is excusable, and will not prevent our salvation. 
If the passages, which still remain obscure, concern faith, 
it is sufficient for a man to say, 'I believe according as the 
truth is in itself before God, or, I believe in the thing as 
God inspired it to the writer,' and if the obscurity respects 
our practice, after making use of the means above men- 
tioned, if that branch of our practice be forbidden or under 
• a doubt, desist from it, but if it is not forbidden, do it, 
and 'Blessed is the man that condemneth not himself in 
the thing which he alloweth.' 



164 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

After I had given them this answer, they brought no 
evidence to prove any error in it, and moreover afterward 
never put to me any question in writing. 

Once, as I was walking with the Bishop of Beyroot, he 
began to tell me how much they all felt for me; and how 
unwilling they should be to put me in chains to die a 
lingering death; and that were it not for the sympathy 
and their love toward me, there were people who had con- 
versed with them, who were ready to take my life. Some 
further conversation passed and I began to introduce the 
subject of religion and to ask how we could believe in the 
pope that he was infallible. He quoted for proof, the 
words of our Savior, *Thou art Peter, etc' I asked him 
if it was proper to suppose that all things bestowed on 
Peter were also given to the pope ; if so, why does not the 
pope speak with tongues ? and why is he not secure from 
the evil effects of poison, etc.? He answered that these 
last things were not necessary. *But how do you prove it 
necessary,' said I, ^that the pope should not err? Is it 
not sufficient if anyone has doubts, to ask his teacher who 
is not infallible? If you say, ^Yes,' then the opinion of 
the infallible man will answer. But if you say, *N"o,' and 
that we must go to the pope, what must become of the 
man who dies before the answer of the pope can reach 
him?' 

He then resorted to another mode of proof, saying, ^Is it 
not desirable that the pope should be infallible?' I as- 
sured him, I wished he might be so. ^Well, is not God able 
to render him so ?' ^Yes, He is able to do all things.' He 
wished to infer his point from these two premises. 'But,' 
I said, ^your reasoning with regard to the pope, may be 
applied to all the bishops of the church ; for it is desirable 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 165 

that they should all be infallible, and God is able to make 
them so.' He said, 'No, for the bishops, feeling less their 
need of the pope, would not look to him, or submit to him 
as their head, and thus there would be divisions and con- 
tentions in the church.' 'But why,' said I, 'did not divi- 
sions and contentions arise among the apostles ? Were they 
not .all infallible as well as Peter?' He would not admit 
that they were infallible. I told him that was an opinion 
that could not be believed, that the pope was infallible 
and the apostles not; for it is well known to all, that the 
Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a peculiar 
manner. I asked him again, how it could be made to ap- 
pear that divisions would be produced if all bishops were 
infallible; for if they were all of one opinion, as they of 
course would be, their union must be the more perfect. 
We conversed further at some length when he concluded 
by saying, 'You are possessed of a devil.' 

The next day, as the patriarch and the Bishop of Bey- 
root were seated under a tree without the convent, I went 
out to them and said, 'Your holiness sent to me to come 
hither for employment and I came, and have remained here 
a considerable time, what do you wish me to do for you, 
for I cannot remain here in idleness.' 

He said, 'What do you wish to do?' 

'If your holiness pleases that I teach in the school of 
Ain Warka, I will do that.' 

*'No, I cannot have you go to Ain Warka, to corrupt the 
minds of those who are studying science and to contradict 
my opinions.' 

'But I will instruct in grammar.' 

'No, the youths of the college are now attending to 
moral science.' 



166 MARTYRS IK ALL AOES. 

*Well, I only beg you let me know what T am to do, and 
if you have no employment for me, I wish to return home.' 

The bishop here broke in upon the conversation, saying, 
^I will not suffer you to go back among my flock to deceive 
them and turn them away to lieresy.' 

'Will you then debar me,' said I, 'from my home? If 
so, let me know where I shall go ? what I shall do ?' 

The bishop then said to the patriarch, 'Indeed I will 
not suffer this man to go abroad among my people, for he 
is even attempting to make heretics of us also.' 

'Yes,' replied the patriarch, 'it will not do after this, to 
afford him a residence in any part of the land.' 

The bishop then turned to mc in the bitterest anger and 
rage, reviling me and saying, 'If you go among my people 
again, I will send and take your life, though it be in the 
bosom of your own house.' 

I said, 'Well, what would you have me to do and what 
will you do with me? If you wish to kill me, or shut me 
up in prison, or give me up to tlie government, or what- 
ever it may be, I wish to know it.' 

'You must wait here until spriri.<^ or summer,' said the 
patriarch, 'and then we shall see how you are.' 

I answered him, in the words of that christian who was 
given by his judge ten days to deliberate whether he would 
worship an image : 'Consider the time already passed, and 
do what you please.' 

I asked the bishop his reasons for wishing to kill me, 
what evil had I done? He was filled with high and bitter 
indignation, saying, 'What, miscreant! Shall we let you 
go forth and corrupt my flock for me? Is not what has 
passed enough?' I arose and said to them, 'God rt least 
IS with me,' and left them. The patriarch sent after me 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 167 

his nephew, requesting me, in soothing words to return 
and saying that he would do what I wished; but when I 
contemplated the hardness of heart manifested by the 
bishop, I could not restrain myself from reproving him, 
hoping that he would grow mild. I said, therefore. *Our 
Lord Jesus Christ said, *Out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh/ and that Satan, who was in his 
heart, wished to kill me, for Satan was a murderer from 
the beginning.' I told him, moreover, that he was not a 
true disciple of Christ, and when I had left them a second 
time the patriarch again sent his nephew to inquire of me 
what I wished ; whether it was money, or what else ? prom- 
ising that he would answer my inquiries. 

I returned and told him that I had a request to make of 
one thing only, and that I hoped he would answer me not 
as to a little child, who would ask a childish thing. He 
asked me what it was. I said, *I have to ask of you the 
favor to send from your priests two faithful men to preach 
the gospel through the country, and I am ready, if neces- 
sary, to sell all that I possess to give to them as part of 
their wages.' He promised me it should be done; but I 
had reason to expect that he would receive such a request 
as from the mouth of one out of his reason. 

Now there was at the convent a man called Hoory 
Gabriel, who was said to be insane and was known to all 
his acquaintance as a man who never would say a word on 
the subject of religion and he was a scribe of the patri- 
arch, and from the time of my arrival until that day, had 
never asked me a single question about my faith, or opin- 
ions, nor had given me the least word of advice about any 
of my errors. The same night, as this priest was passing 
the evening in company with the patriarch, bishop and 



168 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

other individuals, as if they had been conversing on my 
idiocy in making the request of today, the patriarch sent 
for me to come and sit with them. I came. The patri- 
arch then asked this priest and the others present, if two 
proper men could be found to go and preach the gospel. 
They then answered one to another, such a one and such 
a one, would be the fittest persons, some mentioning one, 
and some another, looking at me and in the meantime 
laughing, to see what I would say. 

I smiled in a pleasant manner at all this, and when one 
asked me, why I laughed I said to the patriarch, ^Have 
you not perfect confidence in the integrity of the priest 
Gabriel?' He said, ^Yes.' I then said, 'Pray let this 
priest then examine me for the space of a few days, and 
if he does not conclude that I am a hcrrfic, I will for one, 
take upon myself this duty of preaching.' This remark 
put an immediate end to the conversation. 

The third day, when the bishop wished to mock me 
before the patriarch and a shekh of the country, I answered 
his questions according to his own manner ; but in a little 
time he began to revile me, and to rebuke me for blas- 
pheming against the eucharist, against the virgin Mary 
and the pictures, and that because I had said before one 
of his deacons that were it not for fear of the patriarch, I 
would tear all the pictures to pieces and burn them. I 
gave him answer to every particular by itself, and when 
he found he could produce against me no accusation he in- 
creased in wrath. I then said, 'If this is your pleasure, I 
will say no more.' I told him that I had said, 'That pic- 
tures were not gods;' that such was my opinion always; 
and that I wished to tell all the common people so that 
they might understand it; but to this he would not con- 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 169 

sent. He then began to accuse me of saying of the enchar- 
ist, 'Let them smell the scent of it and know that it is but 
bread and wine still/ I told him that if he would give 
me leave to speak, or if he wished to hear my views, I 
would speak. 'But how is it that you bring against me 
accusations, and do not suffer me to make my defense?' 
Here again he was not willing that I should speak, but 
the patriarch said to me, 'Speak.' I then observed that 
St. Ephraim says, 'Come, eat the fire of the bread, and 
drink of the spirit of the wine;' and began to say from 
this that our eating of the body of Christ was not natural 
but spiritual. Then again he fell into a rage against me. 
I said to him, 'It is written, be ye angry and sin not.' I 
told you before, that I would keep silence and not speak 
without your consent, and whatever you wish, tell me, that 
I may act or refrain accordingly.' At this the patriarch 
smiled. But the bishop fell into a passion still more vio- 
lent against the patriarch, as well as myself, and rose and 
went away. I also left the room. In the evening, when 
were collected together the patriarch and bishop and all 
the monks, with priest Nicholas, whom they were about to 
ordain bishop on the morrow, the patriarch began to ask 
me questions respecting my faith. When I saw that their 
object was neither to benefit me, nor receive benefit, I gave 
them answers calculated to continue the conversation in a 
trifling strain, saying, 'My faith is the faith of Peter, and 
the faith of Peter is my faith. I believe all that God has 
given by inspiration to the one only holy Catholic church.' 
He asked me, 'What is the church?' I answered, 'The 
church is the whole company of those who believe in the 
Messiah and His law, on all the face of the earth.' 'But 
where is the place of the church?' 'The place of the 



ITO MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

church is the whole earth, it is made up of every nation 
and people/ 'What/ said he, 'the English among the 
rest?^ 'Yes, of the English also/ Afterwards, when he 
coaitinued to question me^ and I saw that he had no other 
object than to try me, I assured him, 'This is my faith, 
and to this faith will I hold^ whether it is worth anything 
in your estimation or not/ I then asked him if he were 
willing to hold a discussion on the subject; but he would 
not permit it in any shape. He afterward requested me 
to tell my faith again without fear and without conceal- 
ment. I referred them to the priest that was about to be 
ordained, saying that I had conversed with him on all 
points particularly and that he was able to make answer 
for me. The priest then bore testimony on the spot, that 
I had said before him that I believed the pope could be 
infallible, while I never said this to him at .any time. 
Afterward, when I was in his company privately, I in- 
quired how he could bear such testimony as he had done. 
He confessed in the fullest terms that he knew it was a 
falsehood, but that he said what he did that they might 
cease talking with me. The same night I had resolved on 
quitting them; so at about midnight I left the convent^ 
committing myself to the protection of God, who never 
deserts them who put their trust in Him, and arrived at 
Beyroot on the morning of Thursday, March two, 1826. 

Here then I remain at present, not that I may take my 
views from the English or from the Bible men, nor that I 
may receive my religion from them. No, by no means ; 
for I hold to the word of God. This is beyond all danger 
of error. In this I believe; in this is my faith; and ac- 
cording to it I desire to regulate my life and enjoy all my 
consolations. By this I wish to show what I believe, and 



A l*ERSEOUTEt) PEOPLE. I'i'l 

not to confer with flesh and blood, that I may not run now 
nor hereafter in vain ; for I know and am persuaded that 
the true religion is not according to the teaching of men, 
but according to the inspiration of God; not according to 
the custom of education, but according to the truth, which 
is made manifest by the word of God. I therefore say to 
myself now, as I did in the convent with the patriarch, 
where I wrote thus : 

Tar from me be all the commandments of men. Nothing 
is to come into comparison with the teaching of- Jesus by 
reading the New Testament. If our hearts are not trans- 
formed, there is the greatest danger that we die in our 
sins. If anything in the doctrine of Jesus seems burden- 
some, let us pray that He may make it light; and if there 
is anything that we do not understand, let us pray that He 
would instruct us and reveal the obscurity to all who truly 
believe in Jesus. There is nothing more delightful to the 
soul than He. ^0 taste and see that the Lord is good; 
blessed are all that put their trust in Him.' 'Cast thy 
burden on the Lord and He will sustain thee.' Sweet is 
the sorrow produced by His word ; for it gives us an aver- 
sion to all the consolations of time. Let us therefore seek 
refuge in God. Alas for thee, thou that trusteth to the 
doctrines of men, especially if they give rest to your con- 
science, for that rest is false and deceitful, proceeding 
from the thoughts of men, and preventing you from at- 
taining that true rest of which the apostles speak, saying, 
'We do rest from our labors.' Take heed lest there be in 
any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the 
living God.' Read the word, and it shall teach you all 
things necessary to your salvation. If you say you do not 
understand it, behold the promise of St. James, *If any 



172 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men 
liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him/ 
The divine Word is a most precious treasure, from which 
all wise men are enriched. Drink from the fountain itself. 
Again I say, vain is the philosophy of men; for it rec- 
ommends to us doctrines newly invented and prevents our 
increase in virtue, rather than promotes it. Cast it from 
you.' 

This is what I wrote some time since, and I would re- 
volve these thoughts in my mind at all times. The object 
in all that I have done, or attempted, or written, in this 
late occurrence is, that I may act as a disciple and servant 
of Christ. I could not, therefore, receive any advice which 
would direct me to hide my religion under a bushel. I 
cannot regulate myself by any rules contrary to those of 
Christ; for I believe that all who follow His word in 
truth, are the good grain, and that all those wLo add to 
His word are the tares sown by the enemy, which shall 
soon be gathered in bundles and cast into the fire un- 
quenchable. And I beg every member of my sect, i. e., of 
the Maronite church, who loves truth, if he sees me in an 
error to point it out to me, that I may leave it, and cleave 
to the truth. But I must request those who would rectify 
my views not to do as did a priest at Beyroot, who, after 
a considerable discussion, denied the inspiration of the 
New Testament. Men like him I do not wish to attempt 
to point out my errors; for such men, it is evident, need 
rather to be preached to than to preach ; and to be guidofl, 
rather than to guide; but if any understanding man will 
take the word of God and prove to me from it any doc- 
trine whatever, I will respect him and honor him with all 
pleasure. But if a doctrine cannot be established thus, it 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 173 

is not only opposed to the doctrines of Christ, but to the 
views of the early christians, the fathers of the church, 
such as St. Ephraim and others. Such doctrines I cannot 
confess to be correct, although it should cost me the shed- 
ding of my blood. Be it known, that I am not seeking 
money, nor office; nor do I fear anything from contempt, 
nor from the cross, nor from the persecution of men, nor 
from their insults, nor their evil accusations, so far as 
they are false, — for I am ready for the sake of Christ to 
die daily, to be accounted as a sheep for the slaughter, for 
^in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is 
able to succor them that are tempted.' ^I consider that 
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.' I 
believe that Jesus is our High Priest forever, and hath 
an unchangeable priesthood. ^Wherefore he is able to save 
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,' for He 
is the one Mediator between God and man, and He ever 
liveth to make intercession with the Father for us; and 
He is the propitiation for our sins, and to Him be glory 
with the Father, and his Holy Spirit of Life, forever and 
ever. Amen. 

I would only add, if there is anyone, whoever he may 
be, that will show me to be under a mistake, and that 
there is no salvation for me unless I submit to the pope, 
or at least show me that it is lawful to do so, I am ready to 
give up all my peculiar views and submit in the Lord; 
but without evidence that my views are thus mistaken, I 
cannot give them up and yield a blind obedience until it 
shall be not only told that I am mad, but until T shall be 
so in fact and all mv understanding leaves me. N'ot until 
men shall have burned not only the Bibles printed by the 



174 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

English, but all the Bibles of the world; but these two 
things, understanding and the Bible, I pray God to pre- 
serve both to me and to all the followers of Christ and 
that He will preserve and save all you, my friends, in the 
Lord. ASAAD SHIDIAK." 

Returning to his relatives he attempted to converse with 
them upon the subject of religion; but found them averse 
to listening to his testimony and exhortation, and they at 
length delivered him to the patriarch. Of the unkindness 
of his relatives he said on leaving them, "If I had not 
read the gospel, I should have been surprised at this new 
movement of yours ; but now it is just what I might have 
expected. In this blessed Book, I am told, 'the brother 
shall deliver up the brother to death.' and 'a man's foes 
shall be they of his own household.' " 

The last word received concerning Asaad Shidiak was 
from the convent, where he was in close confinement, 
bound in chains to the floor and daily beaten because he 
refused to worship the virgin Mary. 



A FERSECUTED PEOPLE. 175 

CHAPTER V 

SINCE THE INQUISITION 

George Fox, Friends in America, John Bunyan, John 
Wesley, Charles Wesley, Griffith Jones, Harris and Rol- 
lins, George Whitefield, John M'Burney, Bishop Asbury, 
Solomon Sharp, Thomas Smith, Henry Boehm, and Jacob 
Gruber, Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers, James B. Finley, Mrs. 
Mary Fletcher, The Salvation Army, Freeborn Garrettson 
and Hartley, Philip Gatch and John Cooper, Benjamin 
Abbott and Sterling, Peter Cartwright, West Indies, Bap- 
tist Missionaries, Testimony of G. W. Henry, Elijah Sabin, 
Lorenzo Dow and Others, In Madagascar, Bishop Taylor 
and Rev. William Hill, Monrovia, Liberia, Moslem Coun- 
tries, Arabia, Vivian A. Dake, Out of Great Tribulation, 
Child Martyrs, The Redeemed in Heaven. 



The persecution of God's true people did not cease with 
the close of the Inquisition. God's people have always 
been despised by the world and ecclesiasticism has fought 
them from far back in the history of the church. True 
religion is a persecuted religion. The suffering and the 
woes and the losses of early Quakers, Spirit baptized Meth- 
odists and members of other pentecostal churches who were 
bitterly persecuted by the enemies of God should not here 
be lost sight of. They were everywhere covered with 
shame and reproach and worse, even as the true followers 
of Jesus are today. 



176 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

GEORGE FOX 

George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and mis- 
sionary of that society, suffered persecution continually for 
years. He was left in prison, in the mud and mire and 
given no chance to wash himself until he almost rotted in 
the filthy surroundings, but he had the Holy Ghost and 
they could not get him to compromise. In the year 1673 
he was imprisoned, and was later on released by the in- 
fluence of Sir Matthew Hale. History records that, "after 
the accession of William III to the throne of England, the 
public worship of the Friends in England became toler- 
ated"; which is to say that previous to that time it was 
intolerable to the enemies of Christ. The following from 
the journal of George Fox shows that he was at the time 
referred to, having his share of persecution: 

"I came to Thomas Taylor's, within three miles of 
Halifax, where there was a meeting of about two hundred 
people, amongst which were rude people, and divers butch- 
ers, several of whom had bound themselves with an oath 
before they came out, that they would kill me, — as I was 
told. * * * rpj^g word of Christ was largely declared 
that day and in the life and power of God we broke up 
the meeting; and that rude company went its way to 
Halifax. The people asked them why they did not kill 
me, according to the oath they had sworn; and they ma- 
liciously answered that I had so bewitched them that they 
could not do it. Thus was the devil chained at that time. 
Friends told me that they used to come at other times and 
be very rude; and sometimes break their stools and seats, 
and make frightful work among them. * * * Shortly 




George Fox 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 177 

after this the butcher who had been accused of killing a 
man and woman before, and was one of those that had 
bound themselves by an oath to kill me, killed another 
man and then was sent to York jail. Another of these 
rude butchers, who had also sworn to kill me, having ac- 
customed himself to thrust his tongue out of his mouth, 
in derision of the Friends when they passed by him, had 
it so swollen out of his mouth that he could never draw 
it in again, but died so." George Fox died in London 
in 1690. 

Any one who is acquainted with the Quakers knows 
that they were quite different from the ordinary Protestants 
and that their peculiarities made them objects of con- 
tempt. The very name "Quaker," was given as a term of 
reproach. Their first leader forsook the national church 
and that subjected him and his followers to still greater 
ostracism. They were beaten, whipped, stoned, placed in 
stocks, imprisoned ; some of them "for their plain speeches 
to the magistrates," were whipped as vagabonds. 

A history of the Quakers is at hand, from which we 
learn that during the life of George Fox three thousand 
and sixty-eight Friends and their sympathizers were im- 
prisoned; that their meetings were frequently broken up 
by armed men, their members thrown into the water a^d 
trampled under foot until the blood gushed out. A later 
reliable document places the number of imprisoned Quakers 
at four thousand two hundred, and states that many of 
the prisoners died in Newgate of close confinement — some 
being suffocated in the crow^ded rooms and others, being 
removed, while sick, died of malignant fever in a few 
days. 



178 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 



FRIENDS IN AMERICA. 



Tlie Friends in America fared little better. Much suf- 
fering was inflicted upon them here. They were perse- 
cuted and fined, beaten, whipped, imprisoned and banished ; 
some had their ears cut off and four were hanged. 
Marmaduke Stevenson, William Eobinson, and Mary Dyer 
were imprisoned at Boston, and then released and ordered 
to leave the city on pain of death, the following notification 
being given against them: 

"You are required by these, presently to set at liberty, 
William Eobinson^ Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary Dyer, and 
Nicholas Davis, who, by an order of the court and council, 
have been imprisoned, because it appeared, by their own 
confession, words and actions, that they are Quakers: 
wherefore a sentence was pronounced against them, to de- 
part this jurisdiction on pain of death ; and that they must 
answer it at their peril, if they, or any of them, after the 
fourteenth of this present month, September, are found 
within this city, or any part thereof. — Edward Eawson." 

One can read of the persecutions and suffering of chris- 
tians in the old world, and in the dark ages and feel that 
such things were quite possible under the then existing 
conditions, but one would hardly look for outrages of this 
kind to be perpetrated in the name of law and common de- 
cency, in the seventeenth century and in such a supposedly 
enlightened center as Massachusetts, particularly in Bos- 
ton, the very hub around which it has for many years been 
asserted the very universe revolves. Nevertheless history 
is compelled to chronicle the atrocious persecution and 
butcheries of the early Quakers, to which despised sect be- 
longed Mary Dyer. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 179 

Mary Dyer was without doubt a holy, loyal servant of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and had probably left England for 
America, with many others, in the days of the awful per- 
secutions against the Quakers in that country. We infer 
that her home was in Ehode Island although of this we 
are not certain. She first appears upon the scene, in Bos- 
ton, in connection with the trial and banishment of Robin- 
son and Stevenson, September, 1659. It appears that she 
left Boston after their trial. They visited Salem and 
other places and were again arrested and put into prison 
with chains locked to their right legs. Mary Dyer, too, 
soon returned and went to visit them, and as she stood 
before the prison speaking with one Christopher Holder, 
she was taken into custody. Massachusetts had made a 
law aimed particularly at the Quakers whereby people who 
taught obnoxious, religious doctrines could be banished on 
pain of death if they returned. On the twentieth of Octo- 
ber they were brought into court where John Endicott, and 
others, were assembled. Sewel's history gives the follow- 
ing account of their trial : 

"Being called to the bar, Endicott commanded the keeper 
to pull off their hats: and then said that they had made 
several laws to keep the Quakers from amongst them ; and 
neither whipping, nor imprisoning, nor cutting off ears, 
nor banishing upon pain of death would keep them dway. 
And further, he said, they desired not the death of any 
of them. Yet, notwithstanding that, his following words 
without more ado were, 'Give ear and hearken to your sen- 
tence of death.' After this sentence had been passed on 
Eobinson and Stevenson, Mary Dyer was called; to whom 
Endicott spoke thus: *Mary Dyer, you shall go to the 
place from whence you came (to-wit, the prison), and 



180 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

thence to the place of execution and be hanged there until 
you are dead.' To which she replied, 'The will of the 
Lord be done.' On her way back to prison she was won- 
derfully filled with the love and praise of God and it was 
said, being full of joy she told the marshal he might let 
her alone for she would go to prison without him. To 
which he answered, *I believe you, Mrs. Dyer; but I must 
do what I am commanded.' 

She and her two companions in tribulation were kept 
in prison a short time whence she wrote to the general 
court as follows: 

To the General Court in Boston: 

'Whereas I am by many charged with the guiltiness of 
my own blood ; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am 
therein clear, and justified by the Lord, in whose will I 
came, who will require my blood of you, be sure, who have 
made a law to take away the lives of the innocent servants 
of God if they come among you, who are called by you, 
cursed Quakers. Although I say and am a living witness 
for them and the Lord, that he hath blessed them, and 
sent them unto you ; therefore be not found fighters against 
God, but let my counsel and request be accepted with you, 
to repeal all such laws, that the truth and the servants of 
the Lord may have free passage among you, and you be 
kept from shedding innocent blood; which I know there 
are many among you would not do, if they knew it so to 
be ; nor can the enemy that stirreth you up thus to destroy 
his holy seed, in any measure countervail the great dam- 
age that you will, by thus doing, procure. Therefore seeing 
that the Lord hatli not hid it from you it lieth upon me, 
in love to your souls, thus to persuade you. ... , 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 181 

I have no self ends the Lord knoweth; for if my life 
were freely granted by you, it would not avail me, nor 
could I expect it of you, so long as I would daily hear or 
see the suffering of these people, my dear brethren, the 
seed with whom my life is bound up, as I have done these 
two years ; and now it is like to increase, even unto death, 
for no evil doing, but coming among you. Was ever the 
like laws heard of among a people that profess Christ come 
in the flesh? And have such no other weapons but such 
laws to fight against spiritual wickedness withal, as you 
call it ? Woe is me for you ! Of whom take you counsel ? 
Search with the light of Christ in you, and it will show of 
whom, as it hath done me and many more, who have been 
disobedient and deceived, as now ye are; which light as 
you come into, and obeying what is made manifest to you 
therein, you will not repent that you were kept from shed- 
ding blood, though it were by a woman. It is not mine 
own life I seek (for I choose rather to suffer with the 
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of Egypt), but 
the life of the seed, which I know the Lord hath blessed, 
and therefore seeks the enemy thus vehemently to destroy 
the life therof, as in all ages he ever did. hearken not 
unto him, I beseech you, for the seed's sake; which is 

* * * dear in the sight of God, which they that touch, 
touch the apple of His eye, and cannot escape His wrath; 
whereof I having felt, cannot but persuade all men, 

* * * especially you who name the name of Christ, to 
depart from such iniquity as shedding blood even of the 
saints of the Most High. 

Therefore let my request have as much acceptance with 
you, if you be christians, as Esther's had with Ahasuerus, 
whose relation is short of that that is between christians : 



182 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

and my request is the same that hers was ; and he said not 
that he had made a law, and it would be dishonorable for 
him to revoke it; but when he understood that those 
people were so prized by her, and so nearly concerned her, 
as in truth these are to me, 3^ou may see what he did for 
her. Therefore I leave these lines with you, appealing to 
the faithful and true witness of God, which is one in all 
consciences, before whom we must all appear; with whom 
I shall eternally rest, in everlasting Joy and peace, whether 
you will bear or forbear. With Him is my reward, with 
whom to live is my jo}^ and to die is my gain, though I 
had not had your forty-eight hours warning, for the 
preparation of tlie death of, Mary Dyer. 

And I know this also, that if through the enmity you 
shall declare yourselves worse than Ahasuerus, and con- 
firm your law, though it were by taking away the life of 
one of us, that the Lord will overthrow both your law 
and you, by His righteous judgments and plagues poured 
justly upon you, who now, whilst ye are warned thereof, 
and tenderly sought unto, may avoid the one by removing 
the other. If you neither hear, nor obey the Lord, nor His 
servants, yet will He send more of His servants among 
you, so that your end shall be frustrated, that think to 
restrain them ye call cursed Quakers, from coming among 
you, by anything you can do to them. Yea, verily, He 
hath a seed here among you, for whom we have suffered 
all this while, and yet suffer; whom the Lord of the har- 
vest will send forth more laborers to gather, out of the 
mouths of the devourers, of all sorts, into His fold where 
He will lead them into frosh pastures, even the paths of 
righteousness, for His name's sake. Oh, let none of 5^ou 
put this good day far from you, which verily in the light 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 183 

of the Lord I see approaching, even to many in and 
about Boston. * * * Let the time past, therefore, 
suffice; for such a profession as brings forth such fruits 
as these laws are. In love^ and in the spirit of meekness, 
I again beseech you; for I have no enmity toward the 
person of any; but you shall know, that God v/ill not be 
mocked ; but what ye sow, that shall ye reap * * *. He 
will render to everyone according to the deeds done in the 
body, whether good or evil. Even so be it, saith, 

MARY DYER.' 

(A copy of this was given to the general court after 
Mary Dyer had received sentence of death, about the 
eighth or ninth month, 1659.) 

The day appointed to execute the bloody sentence, was 
the twenty-seventh of October, when in the afternoon the 
condemned prisoners were led to the gallows, by the mar- 
shal, Michaelson, and Captain James Oliver, with a band 
of about two hundred armed men, besides many horsemen ; 
as if they were afraid that some of the people would have 
rescued the prisoners; and that no actors on the stage 
might be wanting, the priest, Wilson, joined the company, 
who, when the court deliberated how to deal with the 
Quakers, said, *Hang them, or else,^ (drawing his finger 
athwart his throat) as if he would have said, *^Despatch 'em 
this way.' Now the march began, and a drummer going 
next before the condemned, the drums were beaten, es- 
pecially when any of them attempted to speak. * * * 
They went on with great cheerfulness, as going to an 
everlasting wedding feast, and rejoicing that the Lord 
had counted them worthy to suffer death for His name's 
sake. 



184 MARTYRS IN AIL AGES. 

Robinson and Stevenson were executed and Mary Dyer 
was led to the gallows and up the ladder; her clothes tied 
about her ; the halter put around her neck and her face 
covered with a handkerchief which a priest loaned the 
hangman; when, just as she was to be swung off a cry 
was heard, "Stop, for she is reprieved." They loosed her 
feet and bade her come down. But she whose mind was 
so absorbed in the things of God; as our historian says; 
Vas already as it were in Heaven/ remained motionless 
and said she was willing to suffer as her brethren did 
unless they would repeal their wicked laws. They paid 
little heed to what she said, but ruthlessly pulled her 
down and carried her to prison again. 

It seems that she was reprieved at the intervention of 
her son. She again wrote to the general court as follows : 

The twenty-eighth of the eighth month, 1659. 
'Once more to the general court assembled in Boston, 
speaks Mary Dyer, even a8 before. My life is not ac- 
cepted, neither availeth me, in comparison of the lives and 
liberty of the Truth and the servants of the living God, 
for which in the bowels of meekness I sought you; yet, 
nevertheless, with wicked hands have you put two of them 
to death, which makes me to feel that the mercies of the 
wicked one are cruelty. I rather choose to die than to 
live, as from you, as guilty of their innocent blood : there- 
fore seeing my request is hindered, I leave you to the 
righteous Judge, and searcher of all hearts, who, with 
the pure measure of light He hath given to every man to 
profit withal, will in His due time let you see whose serv- 
ants you are, and of whom you have taken counsel, which 
I desire you to search into ; but all His counsel hath been 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 185 

slighted, and you would none of His reproofs. Read your 
portion, Proverbs 1 : 24-32. For verily the night cometh 
on you apace, wherein no man can work, in which you 
shall assuredly fall to your own master. In obedience to 
the Lord, whom I serve with my spirit, and pity to your 
souls, which you neither know nor pity, I can do no less 
than once more to warn you, to put away the evil of your 
doings; * * * before His wrath be kindled in you; 
for where it is, nothing without you can help or deliver 
you out of His hand at all; and if these things be not so, 
then sa}^, there hath been no prophet from the Lord sent 
amongst you ; though we be nothing, yet it is His pleasure, 
by things that are not, to bring to naught things that are. 
When I heard your last order read it was a disturbance 
unto me, that was so freely offering up my life to Him 
that gave it to me, and sent me hither so to do, which 
obedience, being His own work, He gloriously accompanied 
with His presence, and peace, and love in me, in which I 
rested from my labor; till by your order and the people, 
I was so far disturbed, that I could not retain any more 
of the words thereof, than that I should return to prison, 
and there remain forty and eight hours; to which I sub- 
mitted, finding nothing from the Lord to the contrary, 
that I may know what His pleasure and counsel is con- 
cerning me, on whom I wait therefore, for He is my life, 
and the length of my days; and as I said before, I came 
at His command, and go at His command. 

MARY DYER." 

The magistrate saw that the putting to death of Robin- 
son and Stevenson caused pfreat discontent among the 
people, hence they resolved to send Mary Dyer away. She 



186 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

v^'as therefore placed on horseback and by four men es- 
corted fifteen miles toward Khode Island, one man con- 
veying her the rest of the way. 

SeweFs history says, "By the style of her letters and 
lier undaunted courage, it appears that she had some ex- 
traordinary qualities. She was of a comely and grave 
countenance, of a good family and estate, and a mother to 
several children: but her husband was of another persua- 
sion." 

After traveling through Long Island and returning 
home, she was moved to again return to the bloody town 
of Boston, which she accordingly did March twenty-first, 
1660. 

On the thirty-first she was sent for by the general court 
and Endicott remanded her to prison, there to remain 
until the following day at nine o'clock, at which time he 
said she should be taken to the gallows and hanged ac- 
cording to the sentence passed upon her at the last gen- 
eral court. An account of her execution is also given in 
SeweFs history. Volume 1, page 291, as follows: 

"About the appointed time the marshal, Michaelson, 
came and called for her to come hastily; * * * gj^g 
desired him to stay a little; and speaking mildly, said, 
she would be ready presently. But he being of a rough 
temper, said he could not wait upon her, but she should 
now wait upon him. One Margaret Smith, her companion, 
being grieved to see such hard-heartedness, spoke some- 
thing against their unjust laws and proceedings; to which 
he said, ^You. shall have your share of the same.' Then 
Mary Dyer was brought forth, and with a band of sol- 
diers was led through the town, drums being beaten before 
and behind her^ and so continued, that none might let her 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 187 

speak all the way to the place of execution, which was 
about a mile. 

With this guard she came to the gallows, and being gone 
up the ladder, some said to her, that if she would return, 
she might come down and save her life. To which she 
replied, 'Nay, I cannot, for in obedience to the will of the 
Lord I came, and in His will I abide faithful to the 
death.' The captain, John Webb, said that she had been 
there before and had the sentence of banishment upon 
pain of death, and had broken the law in coming again 
now; and therefore she was guilty of her own blood. To 
which she returned, *Nay, I came to keep blood guiltiness 
from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and un- 
just law of banishment upon pain of death, made against 
innocent servants of the Lord; therefore my blood will be 
required at your hands, who willfully do it; but for those 
that do it in the simplicity of their hearts, I desire the 
Lord to forgive. I came to do the will of my Father, and 
in obedience to His will, I stand even to death.' The 
priest, Wilson, said, 'Mary Dyer, repent, repent, and 
be not so deluded, and carried away by the deceit of the 
devil.' To this Mary answered, 'Nay, man, I am not now 
to repent.' And being asked by some whether she would 
have the elders pray for her, she said, 'I know never an 
elder here.' Being further asked, whether she would have 
any of the people pray for her, she answered, she desired 
the prayers of all the people of God. 

Thereupon some scoffingly said, 'It may be she thinks 
there are none here.' She looking about said, 'I know but 
few here.' * * * After this she was charged with 
something that was not understood what it was, but she 
seemed to hear it; for she said, 'It is false, it is false; I 



188 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

never spoke those words.' Then one mentioned she should 
have said^ she had been in paradise. To which she an- 
swered, 'Yea, I have been in paradise several days.' And 
more she spoke of the eternal happiness which she was 
now to enter. In this well disposed condition she was 
turned off, and died a martyr of Christ; being twice led 
to death, which the first time she expected, with undaunted 
courage, and now suffered with christian fortitude. Thus 
this honest, valiant woman finished her days." 

In Lossing's Field Book of the Civil War, Volume 3, 
page seventy-nine, an instance is related which shows the 
loyalty of the Quakers or Friends, to their faith. Some 
of their number were forced into the ranks at the battle 
of Gettysburg, but they steadfastly refused to fight. As a 
consequence they were cruelly punished and one was to be 
shot. Twelve soldiers were ordered to fire upon him but 
each refused. The remainder of the company was ordered 
to shoot the disobedient twelve. Then the Quaker prayed 
for them that they might be forgiven, for, he said, "they 
know not what they do," whereupon the whole company 
of soldiers refused to obey the command and so the cap- 
tain tried to shoot the Quaker; but the cap would not 
explode. He then tried in another' way to kill him, but 
God interfered as by a miracle and saved his life. Ere 
long the Quaker and his fellow "Friends" were sent to 
Ft. Delaware as prisoners; the facts were placed before 
the President, who ordered their release. 

JOHN BUNYAN 

One of the contemporaries of George Fox, was John 
Bunyan, who suffered long imprisonment on account of his 
religious opinions, and whose book, "Pilgrim's Progress," 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 189 

partly written in the Bedford jail, has been translated into 
more languages than perhaps any other book aside from 
the Bible, and enjoyed by all classes of people from his 
day until now. Many ministers would like the fame of 
John Bunyan, but not at the price he paid. They prefer 
honor and ease to the reproach that he bore and the suf- 
fering that he endured at the hands of the church and 
the world. 

Yet, "he was able to bear his imprisonment patiently. 
The Lord was very gracious to him. 'I never had,' he 
said, while in prison, 'in all my life, had so great an in- 
sight into the word of God as now. Those scriptures which 
I saw nothing in before, are made in this place and state, 
to shine upon me. I have had sweet sights of the forgive- 
ness of my sins, and of my being with Jesus in another 
world. '0, the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
innumerable company of angels and God, the Judge of all, 
and the spirits of just men made perfect,' And Jesus has 
been sweet unto me in this place, I have seen that here, 
which I am persuaded I shall never, while in this world, 
be able to express. I have seen a truth in the words, 
^hom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye 
see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with jo^ unspeakable 
and full of glory.' 

The thoughts of his afflicted family would sometimes 
press upon his mind, especially the case of one of his four 
children, who was blind. Mr. Bunyan was a man of strong 
affection, a tender husband, and a very indulgent parent, 
and he was supported under his affliction by these two 
scriptures, Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve 
them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.' * * ♦ 
'Yerily it shall be well with thy. remnant; verily I will 



190 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil/ 
He was not idle during his long and severe confinement, 
but diligently studied his Bible, which with the book of 
martyrs, composed his whole library. His own hands also 
administered to the necessity of his indigent family; but 
he was still more usefully employed in preaching to all 
who could gain access to the jail, and with a spirit and 
power that surprised his hearers." 

JOHN WESLEY 

John Wesley was a very well educated man, but he was 
called ignorant and pretentious, and the churches were 
closed against him, so he, with all his followers, had to 
preach in prisons or on commons, and wherever they could, 
in the open fields. His most bitter persecutions took 
place after 1740, when he separated from the Moravians 
and became an itinerant preacher. We quote the follow- 
ing from "Life of John Wesley; or, A Study for the 
Times:" 

"Nothing could show more clearly the need of the great 
revival than the manner, which, for many years, both the 
laity and the ministry received Mr. Wesley's labors. It 
would hardly be an exaggeration to say that he could have 
met with no greater discouragement or more determined 
opposition had he been attempting to christianize the 
tribes in the heart of Africa. * * * -^^^ qj^Ij oaths 
and curses, but stones, clubs, dragging by the hair, tramp- 
ling in the mire, were not unusual experiences of Wesley 
and his coadjutors. * * * Mobs pelted him with stones, 
windows were shattered, while he preached; men, women 
and children were dragged along the streets ; and more 
than onee Wesley himself narrowly escaped with his life. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 19l 

* * * But the most cruel part of all was the persecu- 
tion arising from false charges, slanderous imputations 
and scurrilous attacks from those to whom he would nat- 
urally have turned for friendly aid and sympathy." 

We add the following from "Illustrated History of 
Methodism :" 

"He (Mr. Wesley) was denounced as a restless deceiver 

of the people; an ignorant pretender; a newfangled 

teacher, setting up his own fanatical conceits in opposition 

to the authority of God; a rapturous enthusiast. 'Every- 

where,' says Wesley, %e were represented as mad dogs, 

and treated accordingly. We were stoned in the streets 

and several times narrowly escaped with our lives. In 

sermons, newspapers and pamphlets of all kinds we were 

painted as unheard of monsters, but this moved us not.' 

* * * 

In those days there was enough hardship in the life of 
a Methodist preacher to keep all common men away; 
nevertheless there were streaks of human nature, rather 
broad ones sometimes, in the character of these heroes, on 
account of which many of them fell out of the ranks after 
a short period of service." 

To the "History of Methodism" we are also indebted for 
the following: 

"The city of Cork, especially at that day, was not a 
very safe place for a Methodist preacher; but when John 
Wesley was planned, the element of fear was left out of 
his composition, and therefore he was not afraid to invade 
that wild Irish city. As he rode through the town he 
found that his fame had preceded him, for the people 
crowded to the doors and * * * windows to catch a 
glimpse of the arch-Methodist as he passed. * * * 



192 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

A small society had been formed in Cork, which went on 
peacefully enough until the clergy and the town corpora- 
tion started persecution against them. A strolling ballad- 
singer, named Butler, was engaged to lead tlie anti-Meth- 
odist mob, and this despicable fellow, dressed in a par- 
son*s gown and bands, with a Bible in one hand, and a 
collection of lampooning rhymes in the other, paraded the 
streets singing and peddling the most outrageous and 
ridiculous slanders against Wesley and his followers. The 
next step was to attack the society as they were coming out 
of their place of meeting. Mud, stones and clubs were 
used against them with genuine Irish freedom and vigor, 
and when some of the wounded ones fled back into the 
preaching house for shelter, two sheriffs of the city came 
upon the scene, turned them out into the midst of their 
assailants, and locked the doors of their own chapel against 
them. 

Butler and his gang amused themselves daily and 
nightly, by maltreating the Methodists, breaking their 
windows and spoiling their goods; the mayor of the city, 
himself, being sometimes a silent spectator, and refusing 
to interfere and preserve the peace. Every day for a fort- 
night the mob gathered in front of the house of David 
Sullivan and threatened to pull it down, and he at length 
applied to the mayor for protection. 

*It is your own fault for entertaining those preachers,' 
answered the mayor; whereupon the mob set up a loud 
huzza, and threw stones faster than ever. 

'This is fine usage under a Protestant government,' said 
Sullivan. * * * 'If I had a priest saying mass at my 
house it would not be touched.' 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 193 

The mayor replied, *The priests are tolerated, but you 
are not.' The crowd thus encouraged continued throwing 
stones until midnight. 

On May thirty-one, 1749, the day that Wesley passed 
through Cork, Butler and his friends assembled at the 
chapel, and beat and bruised and cut the congregation 
most fearfully. The rioters burst open the chapel doors, 
tore up the pews, the benches and the floor, and burned 
them in the open street. Having demolished the chapel, 
Butler and his gang of ruflSans went from street to street, 
and from house to house, abusing, threatening and mal- 
treating the Methodists at their pleasure, some of the 
women narrowly escaping with their lives. For two 
months these horrible outrages were continued; and at 
the end of that period, Wesley writes: *It was not for 
those who had any regard either to their persons or goods 
to oppose Mr. Butler after this. So the poor people pa- 
tiently suffered whatever he and his mob were pleased to 
inflict upon them.' 

CHARLES WESLEY 

Twenty-eight charges were made against Butler and his 
crew, before the grand jury of the Cork Assizes, but they 
were all thrown out, while the same jury made a present- 
ment declaring that Charles Wesley and seven other Meth- 
odist preachers, therein named, together with Daniel Sul- 
livan, were all persons of ill fame, and common vagabonds, 
disturbers of His Majesty's peace, and ought to be trans- 
ported. This, of course, gave Butler greater license than 
ever. His fiendish persecutions had now received a semi- 
lOjBficial sanction and were carried on with greater gusto. 



194 MARTYKS i:: -ML AGES. 

The farce of a trial of six Irish Methodist preax^her itin- 
erants for vagabondage and disturbing the peace, was 
afterward attempted at Coik, with the infamous Butler as 
chief witness against them, but the judge declared that it 
was an insult to the court to bring such a ease and such 
witnesses before him. 

One of the rabble died shortly afterward, and was 
buried in a coffin made of two of the benches which he had 
stolen from the Methodist meeting house; while the noto- 
rious Butler went first to Waterford, where, * * * ^^ 
another riot he lost an arm, and then fled to Dublin, where 
he dragged out the remainder of his life in misery, and 
was actually saved from starvation by the charity of the 
Dublin Methodists." 

Charles Wesley often shared his brother's persecutions. 
He preached to large congregations, but many a church 
was closed against him,. We have selected the following 
in regard to him and their co-laborer George WhitefieM: 

"He (Charles Wesley) was ejected from, the curacy of 
Islington, not so much (it is alleged) because of his doc- 
trine, as for the earnestness with which he uttered it. 
* * * He went from the closed pulpits not only to the 
'societies' but to the prisons and hospitals, where his mes- 
sage was received with gratitude and tears, and was at- 
tended with demonstration of the Spirit and of power 

GRIFFITH JON^ES. HARRIS AND ROLLINS 

While all this -^vas tranppiring in England, Griffith Jones 
was preaching the gospel in Wales from "tombstones," 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 195 

and on the "greenswards/' for the churches could not 
accommodate the multitudes that desired to hear him. 
Howell Harris, another faithful cvai^gelist, had gone up 
to Oxford to study fo^ the church, but the infidelity and 
immorality which prevailed there at that time so discour- 
aged him that he was forced to leave the university. Harris 
was a lay preacher; he applied repeatedly for ordination, 
but was denied it by the bishops on account of his irregu- 
lar modes of labor. At one time, being denied the church, 
he stood upon a horseblock before the inn and delivered 
his message. He received very little sympathy from the 
established clergy, though he died a churchman. 

Driven out of the churches, these evangelists of God 
went into the fields, coal pits, and on the mounts, having 
as a splendid example, our Lord's sermon on the mount, 
^one pretty remarkable precedent ;' as John Wesley said. 

Christmas Evans, the Calvanistic Baptist, wrote that 
Harris and Eollins were jumping and praising the Lord 
and preaching in Wales at the time of Wesley and White- 
field in England. They, "were both of the communion of 
the Episcopal church and as such there was not much 
enmity against them at first, but after they had come out, 
and when people understood that they were preachers of 
the cross of Christ, considerable persecution arose against 
them from the multitude." "History of Methodism," by 
Abel Stevenson, page twenty-five, gives further account of 
the "Holy Club," of the persecutions of Howell Harris, 
and of Whitefield, as follows: 

"Howell Harris, amid storms of persecution, planted 
Methodism in Wales, where it has elevated the popular 
religious condition, once so exceedingly low, above that of 
Scotland." 



196 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 



GEORGE WHITEFIBLD 



"The 'Holy Club' was formed at Oxford in 1739, for 
the sanetification of its members. The Wesleys there 
sought personal purification by prayer, watchings, fast- 
ings, alms, and christian labors among the poor. George 
Whitefield joined them for the same purpose ; and was the 
first to become ^renewed in the spirit of his mind,' but 
not till he had passed through a fiery ordeal, till he had 
spent whole days and weeks prostrate on the ground in 
prayer. * * * He was hooted^ and pelted with mis- 
siles in the streets by his fellow students, but was prepar- 
ing meanwhile to go forth a sublime herald of the new 
'movement ;' a preacher of Methodism in both hemispheres ; 
the greatest preacher, it is probable, in popular eloquence, 
of all the christian ages. Whitefield returned from Georgia 
and the Methodist movement began in good earnest. Its 
apostles were excluded from the pulpits of London and 
Bristol; they took the open fields, and thousands of col- 
liers and peasants stood weeping around them. They in- 
vaded the fairs and merrymakings of Moorfields and 
Kensington Common; ten, twenty, sometimes fifty and 
even sixty thousand people, made their audiences. The 
singing could be heard two miles off, and Whitefield's 
voice, a mile. 

The whole country was soon asMr with exoitetnent. 
Whitefield died of asthma September thirtieth, 1770, after 
preaching powerful sermons at Newburypod;, Portsmouth 
and Philadelphia." 

JOHN m'burney 

"John M'Burney deviated sometimes from his circuit 
to preach in the market place at Clones (Ireland). Many 




A Protestant's Corpse Desecrated 

(See page 127.) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 197 

people attended, and much good was done ; but the papists 
took alarm, and, assembling the rabble, persecuted the 
assembly so violently that it was feared the worship must 
be abandoned, especially as no magistrate would interfere. 
When about to give up, a single incident occurred to 
restore confidence to the worshipers. A veteran military 
pensioner astonished the preacher and his friends by tak- 
ing his post at a tree in the market place, musket in hand, 
and proclaiming with a terrible oath that he would shoot 
the first man who should pass the tree to disturb the 
meeting. He was a Scotchman, wicked, but with high 
hereditary notions of religious decorum, and good courage 
to maintain them. 'His word/ says a contemporary writer, 
Vas certainly attended with power of some kind, for not 
one of the rioters, although they shouted from a distance, 
attempted to pass the prescribed limits.^ The staunch old 
soldier mounted guard at the tree regularly at every visit 
of the preacher for several weeks, until he had completely 
won the field, ^hat strange instruments,' writes a Meth- 
odist preacher who recorded the case on the spot, Vhat 
strange instruments are sometimes raised up to prevent or 
defeat the designs of Hell !' 

But the cowed rioters sought revenge elsewhere. 
M'Burney attempted to preach near the neighboring vil- 
lage of Enni&killen. While the congregation was singing, 
the mob armed with clubs, rushed in, breaking the win- 
dows and violently thrusting out men and women. The 
preacher was knocked down and dragged on the earth. 
He lay for some time senseless under the blows of the 
rioters. On becoming conscious he attempted to rise, but 
staggered and fell again. A ruffian set his foot upon his 
face, swearing he would 'tread the Holy Ghost out of him.' 



198 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

'May God forgive you, I do/ exclaimed the sufferer as 
soon as he could ^peak. He was then placed upon his 
horse, and one of the rioters, mounting behind him, drove 
him impetuously down the mountainside to the town, 
where he was rescued by a hospitable citizen. Preaching 
as long as he had strength, and rejoicing that he had been 
counted worthy to suffer for Christ, he died at last of the 
injuries thus received, and claims in the history of Irish 
Methodism the honorable rank accorded to Thomas Beard 
in that of England,.'^ Stevens' "History of Methodism/' 
Volume I. 

FRANCIS ASBURY 

Francis Asbury was converted at fourteen years of age 
and shortly after began holding meetings in his father's 
house in England. He started out as an itinerant preacher 
at the age of twenty-one and five years later was appointed 
by Wesley to go to America. He came to America in 1771 
and his labors in his new field were abundant and very 
extensive. Of his departure from England we read that 
when he was about to embark from Bristol he had no 
money for his expenses; but God laid it upon the hearts 
of some of his friends to supply him with extra clothes 
and with the fare. "Thus/' he says, "I found by experi- 
ence that He will provide for those who trust in Him." 
God blessed his pioneer work among the early settlers of 
this country and rewarded him for his perils and hard- 
ships, with souls. Methodism had a stirring time during 
the war of the revolution. Asbury states that their chapel 
at Salem, Virginia, was "hardly better than a bam," and 
says that, "it was often besieged by mobs, till at last the 
magistrates interfered and protected the feeble society. A 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 199 

profane club of the town continued its persecution in bur- 
lesque imitation of the Methodist worship, but was sud- 
denly arrested by an appalling occurrence in one of their 
assemblies. While they were amusing themselves with 
jocular recitations of hymns and exhortations, a female 
guest TXise on a bench to imitate a Methodist class, ^Glory 
to God!' she exclaimed; ^I have found peace, I am sancti- 
fied. I am now ready to die.' At the last words she fell 
to the floor a corpse. The club, struck with consterna- 
tion, never assembled again, and Methodism became emi- 
nently influential in the town and all its vicinity." Thus 
it was that God saw fit to take in hand the punishment of 
one of his persecutors. Numbers of similar instances 
could be related. 

SOLOMON SHARP, THOMAS SMITH, HENRY BOEHM, AND 
JACOB GRUBER 

The pioneers of Methodism were God-attended minis- 
ters and their spirit and zeal everywhere provoked perse- 
cution. The subjects of this sketch were full of faith and 
courage, and it is inspiring to read of the opposition they 
encountered and of the difficulties they overcame and of 
the way that God protected them, blessed them, and oft 
followed their warnings with quick judgments. Their vic- 
tories came through fearless preaching and through prayer. 

Solomon Sharp often had occasion to show whetlier he 
feared God more than men, and proved to be a brave hero 
of the cross. Thomas Smith, perhaps naturally a coward 
(converted almost immediately after an attempt to commit 
suicide), received strength from God to carry on the work 
bravely and suffered no little ill treatment at the hands of 



200 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

persecutors. On one occasion a band of young men gath- 
ered at the door of his preaching place, armed to kill him ; 
but when he appeared at the close of the sermon their arms 
fell helplessly and they allowed him to pass by unharmed. 
The next day he preached to them and to hundreds of 
African slaves. This so enraged the devil that four per- 
sons bound themselves with an oath, to kill him before 
sundown. He had recourse to prayer and they began to 
fight among themselves and let him go unharmed. Henry 
Boehm's persecution was stopped for a time at least by a 
judgment which he relates as follows : "There was a shop 
in the neighborhood where some men used to meet to- 
gether. One of the company, a young man, undertook to 
mimic the Methodists. He went on to show how they 
acted in their meetings. He shouted, clapped his hands, 
and then he would show how they fell down. He then 
threw himself down on the floor and lay there as if asleep. 
His companions enjoyed the sport, but after he had lain 
for some time they wondered why he did not get up. 
They shook him in order to awake him. When they saw 
he did not breathe they turned pale, and sent for a physi- 
cian, who examined the man and pronounced him dead." 
Jacob Gruber was a convert to the "new faith," as Meth- 
odism was in those days called, and was driven from his 
home on account of his conversion. He went away with 
such clothes as he could carry and did not know whither 
he should go; but as he wandered along he was met by a 
Methodist preacher, who told him to go and preach the 
gospel, and he at once heeded the call, feeling it came as 
from the Lord, put the little money that he carried into 
the purchase of a horse, which he mounted at once and 
rode away to the circuit to which he had been directed by 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 201 

the faithful itinerant. Thus began his ministry, which 
continued about fifty years almost without an interruption. 
He died at the age of seventy-two years and among his 
last words were these, "Tomorrow, I shall spend my first 
Sabbath in Heaven." 

MRS. HESTER ANN ROGERS 

In England, in 1756, was bom to an Episcopal clergy- 
man, named Roe, a little daughter whom they christened 
Hester Ann. The early training of Hester Ann was of a 
very religious and careful nature, and when but six years 
of age, she would ask God to supply all her need and to 
heal her body when afflicted. At one time she was severely 
rebuked by her father for lying; which she never forgot. 
He died when she was but nine years old, and she was so 
overcome by grief, that her mother, thinking to divert her 
mind, permitted her to visit worldly relatives, who made a 
laughing stock of her because of her piety. 

Later on she was instructed in dancing, and she became 
quite proficient; this fed her pride. She then began to be 
admired and aimed to excel in fashionable dress. She 
also began reading novels and attending the theater. In 
this way she misspent her time and her foolish heart wan- 
dered far from God. Yet, through all this the Holy Ghost 
plead with her. At the age of fourteen she had a severe 
illness which very nearly proved fatal; and while she had 
been confirmed in the Episcopal church, she was totally 
unprepared to meet God : still after her recovery she con- 
tinued in her worldly pleasures. 

About' this time, through reports, she became greatly 
prejudiced against the Methodists and determined she 



202 MA.ETYRS IN ALL AGES. 

would not give up her siiis and be converted among them ; 
and while God strove with her mightily, she fought con- 
viction and plunged more deeply into sinful pleasures. 
But the preaching of the Methodists sank deeply into her 
heart, until, at last, she solemnly vowed to renounce worldly 
amusements and trifling companions. The next morning, 
without informing her mother she destroyed her fashion- 
able dresses, cut her hair short and promised God she 
would never dance again. 

Her mother feared for her reason and forbade her at- 
tending the Methodist meetings. At last she begj^^ed to 
act as servant in her mother's house if permitted to attend 
the Methodist services, and her mother consented to the 
proposal and accepted her as a servant. She entered cheer- 
fully upon her new duties and was soon remarkably con- 
verted. She shortly after sought and obtained the Holy 
Ghost and became an instrument in God's hands to the 
salvation of many souls. 

JAMES B. FINLEY 

In a Kentucky camp meeting, in the year 1801, Mr. 
Finley was awakened to the fact that he was a great sin- 
ner. We give his description of the meeting and of his 
conversion, as it is quoted in "Shouting, Genuine and Spu- 
rious :" 

"We started for the meeting. On the way I said to 
my companions: ^N^ow, if I fall, it must be by physical 
power and not by singing and praying;' and as I prided 
myself upon my manhood and courage, I had no fear of 
being overcome by any nervous excitability, or being fright- 
ened into religion. We arrived upon the ground, and here 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 203 

a scene presented itself to my mind not only novel and un- 
accountable, but awful beyond description. A vast crowd, 
supposed by some to have amounted to twenty-five thou- 
sand, was collected together. The noise was like the roar 
of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be 
agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers, all 
preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons, 
and one — ^the Eev. William Burke, now of Cincinnati — 
was standing on a tree which had, in falling, lodged against 
another. Some of the people were singing, others pray- 
ing, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents, 
while others were shouting most vociferously. While wit- 
nessing these scenes, a peculiarly strange sensation, such 
as I had never felt before, came over me. My heart beat 
tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lip quivered, and I 
felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange su- 
pernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of 
mind there collected. I became so weak and powerless 
that I found it necessary to sit down. Soon after I left 
and went into the woods, and there I strove to rally and 
man up my courage. I tried to philosophize in regard to 
these wonderful exhibitions, resolving them into mere sym- 
pathetic excitement — a kind of religious enthusiasm, in- 
spired by songs and eloquent harangues. My pride was 
wounded, for I supposed that my mental and physical 
strength and vigor could most successfully resist these 
influences. 

After some time I returned to the scene of excitement, 
the waves of which, if possible, had risen still higher. 
The same awfulness of feeling came over me. I stepped 
up on to a log, where I could have a better view of the 
surging sea of humanity. The scene that then presented 



204 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

itself to my mind was indescribable. At one time I saw 
at least five hundred swept down in a moment, as if a 
battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, 
and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that 
rent the very heavens. My hair rose on my head, my 
whole frame trembled, the blood ran cold in my veins, and 
I fled for the woods a second time, and wished I had 
stayed at home. While I remained here my feelings became 
intense and insupportable. A sense of suffocation and 
blindness seemed to come over me, and I thought I was 
going to die. There being a tavern about half a mile off, 
I concluded to go and get some brandy, and see if it would 
not strengthen my nerves. When I arrived there I was 
disgusted with the sight that met my eyes. Here I saw 
about one hundred men engaged in a drunken revelry, 
playing cards, trading horses, quarreling, and fighting. 
After some time I got to the bar, and took a dram and 
left, feeling that I was as near Hell as I wished to be, 
either in this or the world to come. The brandy had no 
effect in allaying my feelings, but, if anything, made me 
worse. Night at length came on, and I was afraid to see 
any of my companions. I cautiously avoided them, fear- 
ing lest they should discover something the matter with me. 
In this state I wandered about from place to place, in and 
around the encampment. At times it seemed as if all the 
sins I had ever committed in my life were vividly brought 
up in array before my terrified imagination, and under 
their awful pressure I felt that I must die if I did not get 
relief. Then it was that I &aw clearly through the thin 
veil of Universalism, and this refuge of lies was swept 
away by the spirit of God. Then fell the scales from my 
sin-blinded eyes, and I realized, in all its force and power, 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 205 

the awfnl tmth that if I died in my sins, I was a lost man 
forever. 0, how I dreaded the death of the soul, for : 

'There is a death whose pang 
Outlasts the fleeting breath; 

what eternal horrors hang 
Around the second death!' 

Notwithstanding all this, my heart was so proud and 
hard that I would not have fallen to the ground for the 
whole state of Kentucky. I felt that such an event would 
have been an everlasting disgrace, and put a final quietus 
on my boasted manhood and courage. At night I went to 
a barn in the neighborhood, and creeping under the hay, 
spent a most dismal night. I resolved, in the morning, to 
start for home, for I felt that I was a ruined man. Find- 
ing one of the friends who came over with me, I said, 
'Captain, let us be off ; I will stay no longer.' He assented, 
and getting our horses we started for home. We said but 
little on the way, though many a deep, long-drawn sigh 
told the emotions of my heart. When we arrived at the 
Blue Lick Knobs, I broke the silence which reigned mutu- 
ally between us. Like long pent-up waters, seeking for an 
avenue in the rock, the fountains of my soul were broken 
up, and I exclaimed, 'Captain, if you and I don't stop our 
wickedness, the devil will get us both.' Then came from 
my straining eyes the bitter tears, and I could scarcely 
refrain from screaming aloud. This startled and alarmed 
my companion, and he commenced weeping, too. Night 
approaching, we put up near Mayslick, the whole of which 
was spent by me in weeping and promising God, if he 
would spare me till morning, I would pray and try to 
mend my life and abandon my wicked courses. 



206 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

As soon as day broke I went to the woods to pray, and 
no sooner had my knees touched the ground than I cried 
aloud for mercy and salvation, and fell prostrate. My 
cries were so loud that they attracted the attention of the 
neighbors, many of whom gathered around me. Among 
the number was a German from Switzerland, who had 
experienced religion. He, understanding fully my condi- 
tion, had me carried to his house and laid on a bed. The 
old Dutch saint directed me to look right away to thfe 
Savior. He then kneeled at the bedside and prayed for 
my salvation most fervently,, in Dutch and broken English. 
Pie then rose and sung in the same manner, and continued 
singing and praying alternately till nine o'clock, when 
suddenly my load was gone, my guilt removed, and pres- 
ently the direct witness from Heaven shone full upon my 
soul. Then there flowed such copious streams of love into 
the hitherto waste and desolate places of my soul, that I 
thought I should die with excess of joy. I cried, I laughed, 
I shouted, and so strangely did I appear to all, but my 
Dutch brother, that they thought me deranged. After a 
time I returned to my companion, and we started on our 
journey. G what a day it was to my soul! The Sun of 
righteousness had risen upon me, and all nature seemed 
to rejoice in the brightness of its rising. The trees that 
waved their lofty heads in the forest, seemed to bow them 
in admiration and praise. The living stream of salvation 
flowed into my soul. Then did I realize the truth of that 
hymn I have so frequently sung: 

^I feel that Heaven is now begun ; 
It issues from the sparklin<r throne — ' 

From Jesus' throne on high; 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 207 

It comes . in floods I can't contain ; 
I drink, and drink^ and drink again, 
And yet am ever dry/ '^ 

In camp meetings subsequently held by James B. Finley 
people fell 'like slain in battle/ Professed infidels, and 
other vicious characters, were arrested by the Holy Ghost 
and sometimes when they were uttering blasphemies 
against the work of God, were like Saul, made to declare 
the same to be God's work. Six years of his ministry were 
devoted to work among the Indians of Ohio. God blessed 
his labors and sufferings and gave him glorious success 
among them. Mr. Finley was a man of stalwart frame, his 
voice was like thunder, and his courage made riotous op- 
posers quail before him. He did not hesitate to seize dis- 
turbers of his meetings, shake them in his athletic grasp, 
and pitch them out of the windows or doors. His many 
years of successful ministry were ended by death, Septem- 
ber six, 1856. 

MRS. MARY FLETCHER 

In the first part of the eighteenth century was born 
in Essex, England, "a child of beauty, who received the 
name of Mary. She was of noble descent, grew up amid 
the smiles of affluence and was fanned by the soft breath 
of uninterrupted and genial prosperity. Yet amid all the 
blandishments of gayety and fashion her heart at times, 
and at an early age, grew sad, tears alternated with 
smiles, and slie longed for something to which she 
w^s as yet a stranger. A voice came to her, sometimes in 
solitude, and tlien again in the very midst of convivial 
scenes, telling her of a sinful heart, awakening desires 



208 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

for a higher and more permanent good, and beckoning her 
to approach the fountain of living waters and drink and 
live forever. That voice was heeded. After long strug- 
glings, and amid divers adverse influences, she leaned at 
last upon the Strong for help — laid her weary head upon 
the bosom of the Redeemer and was at rest. Nor was it a 
mere nominal process. She most deliberately resigned this 
world and all the delicious hopes it presented to her youth- 
ful eye. She retired at once from the play-house, the 
dance, and the circle of revelry ; she put off the robes and 
adornments of fashion and worldliness, and wedded her- 
self without reservation to Him who loved her and gave 
Himself for her eternal life. 

Her parents, though of the Church of England, and 
professors of religion, sorrowed deeply for the turn which 
their Mary had taken ; grew angry at her obstinate renun- 
ciation of all the sports and recreations of youthful years ; 
looked darkly as they helped her to exchange the rich 
vestments suited to rank and refinement for the 'modest 
apparel' which she deemed more in harmony with the sim- 
plicity and purity of her christian profession. In vain 
they reasoned and expostulated, till at last a father's face 
grew stern and even a mother's heart waxed cold, and the 
fountains of parental tenderness and love seemed hasten- 
ing to be dried up. Then presently came dark hints to 
this poor child that her presence was not welcome as once, 
that the home of her infancy and childhood was become 
weary of her, and how it was preferred that another than 
her father's house should shelter her henceforth. 

She had watched with aching eye the gathering storm, so 
that when the sad crisis came, as it soon did come, she 
was not entirely unfortified against the shock. One day, 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 209 

as the parents were going out to spend some hours, said 
the mother to Mary, *If j^ou please, when the coach has set 
us down it may carry you home to your lodging.' It was 
a lodging which she had provided in anticipation of this 
sad day. And thus she went forth from the presence and 
house of those who should have protected and blessed her 
— went forth to face alone the temptations and adversities 
of a stormy world. they perceived not, that father and 
mother, that it was one of God's holy angels they were 
turning from their doors ; nor did they discern that other 
angels walked with her as she retired; nor did they hear 
the voice, richer and sweeter than heavenly music, that 
fell on the ear of that dear child, singing, ^When thy 
father and mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take 
thee up.' 

Thus, at the age of twenty-one, did Mary Bosanquet be- 
come, for Christ's sake, an exile from the splendid home 
of her early years. The love of Christ constrained her 
from participating in the gayeties and frivolities of high 
and fashionable life, and she was ejected. Sadly yet joy- 
fully she took the spoiling of her earthly home and hopes, 
and in the lone lodging whither she went that night we 
seem almost to hear her song tremulously whispering along 
the evening air as it utters — 

^Jesus, I my cross have taken. 
All to leave and follow thee; 

Naked, poor, despised, forsaken. 

Thou from hence mv all shalt be/ 



The great subject of doing good she studied as a science, 
while the capacity and privilege of beneficence she longed 



210 MAHTYRS IK ALL AGES. 

for like as the miser covets gold and silver. Sueh was the 
fullness and tenderness of affection swaying, and, as it 
were, swallowing up her heart, that every sight and sound 
of distress, whether of man or brute, moved her to tears, 
while to impart comfort to sorrowing hearts, and especially 
the sweet influences that bear salvation on their wings, 
became the passion of her soul. Especially upon 'them 
who are of the household of faith' was poured forth the 
exuberance of her benevolence and love. Heart-felt and 
delicious were the notes breathing from the beautiful lips 
of Mary as she sung: 

'0 that my Lord would count me meet 
To wash His dear disciples' feet — 
After my lovely Lord to go. 
And wait upon His saints below — 
Enjoy the grace to angels given, 
And serve the royal heirs of Heaven.' 

Nor long could a charity so large and earnest as that of 
this precious young lady be confined to one or two. She 
reached after a more widespread usefulness, and was fully 
bent upon compassing nobler and more far reaching results. 
It seemed almost a heavenly allotment — her own quiet and 
pleasant little home, and a few chosen friends, happy 
counterparts of herself, and participation in the times of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord that were now 
shining as some glorious morning amid the startling min- 
istry of the Wesleys at London. Here she could have lin- 
gered through sunny years, and in her walks with God her 
steps would have been as music, and her lovely countenance 
would have beamed gladness upon many a heart, and her 




Martyrdom in Germany 



(See pa^e f)8.) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 211 

voice would have charmed away a thousand sorrows, and 
the touch of her soft hand would have prevented many an 
aching head from sinking beneath dark waters. 

But some holy voice seemed beckoning her away. It 
came whispering as if from her natal region, and its utter- 
ances seemed in behalf of poor and neglected ones scat- 
tered amid the hills and forests of Leytonstone. There, 
about a mile from a country seat of her father's, and in the 
margin of an extensive forest, was a house of her own, 
and thither the beautiful finger of her destiny seemed 
pointing her. Yet was she not rash or premature in her 
movements, for she walked with God, and such do 'not 
make haste.' As she lingered, blissful scenery of her 
nightly dreams was laid amid that rural abode, and there, 
mingled with the soft slumbers of her peaceful rest, happy 
visions rose up before her of many a pilgrim walking 
beneath her guidance along the pleasant paths of heavenly 
wisdom. Thither presently she went, accompanied by an 
associate whom she loved as her own soul. Joy, too, ac- 
companied her as she retired to take possession of her new 
and rural home; for the sublime assurance dwelt with her 
that her ways were ordered in Heaven. Hence her step 
was light and gladsome, and smiles of delicious sunshine 
gilded her pathway as she went. Nor was it a scene of 
inglorious ease that was instituted at Leytonstone. That 
unpretending mansion soon became rather a theater of holy 
charity and ceaseless activity. Poor orphan ones came 
thither and found an asylum and an angel of goodness 
waiting to extend to them her hand and shelter, feed 
and clothe, to teach them, and train them up for the life 
everlasting. To this work of mercy was Mary's little for- 
tune, her time, her attainments and patience, and all the 



212 MAETYRS I^r ALL AGES. 

splendid affluence of her spiritual and moral treasure 
strenuously devoted. ^What things were gain to her she 
counted loss for Christ/ She left father, and mother, 
and brethren^ and lands for the kingdom of Heaven's sake. 
She withdrew from the circles of rank and wealth to 
mingle with the lowly children of adversity and help to 
lift them up to a higher and nobler sphere of life and 
action. She laid by forever the robes of elegance and 
fashion, and assumed cheap and humble apparel, so that 
she might extend her means of charity, and gratify to the 
utmost limit her passion for beneficence. She retired from 
a life of ease and splendor to labor day and night for the 
needy and unfortunate. Of noble descent and nurtured 
in the lap of abundance, she might have lingered amid 
charming scenery and reclined in bowers of beauty, and 
mingled in fascinating circles, and fared sumptuously 
every day, and reveled in all the refined enjoyments of 
polished life. Yet from all these did she turn away, lit- 
erally choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God 
rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 
With the utmost deliberation did Mary, of Leytonstone, 
like Mary, of Bethany, choose the good part which shall 
never be taken away from her." "Queenly Women." 

THE SALVATION ARMY 

History says that the Salvation Army, fifteen or twenty 
years ago, had as many as five hundred of its officers in 
jail at one time in this country, and they were there for 
nothing at all; but for preaching the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. 

God tells us in His word that every one that 'Vill live 
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." A holiness 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 213 

evangelist who was at one time superintendent of a pros- 
perous Sunday school of seven or eight hundred children, 
and was well acquainted with the dignitaries of the church, 
ate with its highest authorities and was held in highest 
esteem by them, said, "Oh, when that thought had fastened 
itself in my mind it nearly frightened me to death. Where 
was my persecution? Forty-five hundred dollars a year 
salar}^ for a man and every one fawning upon him and 
bowing at his feet is not persecution !" He said, "Give 
me the kind of salvation that will bring persecution." 
Wherever Paul went he had persecution, and when you get 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire you will not 
have so easy a life, with every one bowing and telling you 
how nice you are. Mobs followed John Wesley and stoned 
him; they never told him that he was a nice man. Men 
have been cursing God's people all through the ages and the 
devils have ever tried to get the Bible off the earth, — tried 
to burn it up; but God Almighty kept it. Think of the 
Waldenses and the Albigenses back yonder, and others who 
walked with God ; how they suffered ! A man would be 
looking for a Holy Ghost meeting and suddenly he would 
hear the yells of the saints and the crash of rocks and by 
this know the place of the meeting. 

If you want to know where Holy Ghost people live, read 
the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and you will find that 
they lived in caves and dens of the earth. It seems that 
wherever real revivals spring up, persecutions follow. 

Compare the work of the Salvation Army twenty years 
ago with its work of today and we find a very great and 
lamentable change. Its members used to be a God-fearing, 
persecuted people, used to the salvation of many souls, 
especially among the lower classes where it appears General 



214 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Booth was chosen of God to labor, often preaching to mul- 
titudes in the open air. At other timyes occupying vacant 
stables, sheds, or anything in the shape of buildings, ob- 
tainable. "The resistance then to the truth was by pistol, 
dagger and knife; and the officers were not only severely 
wounded in several cases, but were chased from the neigh- 
borhood for miles, barely escaping under the care of the 
police in trams and other public conveyances." 

The Salvation Army of today is not being persecuted. 
Its light has gone out, and it has become a nonentity as 
far as having the power of God is concerned. Souls tossed 
by the tempests of temptation and sin are no longer finding 
Jesus through its ministrations. The lives of its workers 
do not appeal to people in sin and trouble. The enemy 
has destroyed the Army's influence for good and it has 
developed into a Christless organization whose members do 
not live by faith in the Son of God, but eke out an ex- 
istence by begging. 

FREEBORN GARRETTSON AND HARTLEY 

Freeborn Garrettson became an exhorter with the early 
Methodists and brought persecution to himself wherever 
he went. The "History of Methodism'' says in regard to 
him: 

"He was attacked by ruffians, smitten on the face, 
mobbed and summoned to drill as a soldier. When carried 
before a military officer he told his 'experience' and sat on 
his horse 'exhorting ^vith tears,' a thousand people; the 
court-martial dismissed him with a fine of twelve dollars 
and a half year, but he was never called upon to pay it. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 215 

He was menaced by persecutors, interrupted sometimes 
in his sermons, threatened by armed men, and one of his 
friends was shot (but not mortally), for entertaining 
him; *but,' he says, 'the consolation afforded me was an 
ample compensation for all the difficulties I met with wan- 
dering up and down.' At Kent, Maryland, * * * one 
of his colleagues. Hartley, was imprisoned, the others were 
dispersed, and he was left alone to bear the brunt of the 
persecution. * * * His friends in Kent entreated him 
not to hazard his life by traveling at large; but he trav- 
eled through the country preaching once, twice, thrice and 
sometimes four sermons a day to listening multitudes 
'bathed in tears.' 

At one time he was near receiving the honors of mar- 
tyrdom. Being unmolested in the congregation he deemed 
himself safe, notwithstanding he had been threatened, 
privately, with imprisonment. But on riding away he was 
met by an opposer, formerly a judge of the county, who 
struck him on the head with a bludgeon. The itinerant 
attempted to escape, but was overtaken by the swifter horse 
of his assailant, and, struck again, fell senseless to the 
ground. He was carried to a neighboring house, where it 
was supposed that he could live but a few minutes; 'the 
heavens,' he writes, 'seemed in a very glorious manner 
opened, and by faith I saw my Redeemer standing on the 
right hand of the Father nleading my cause. I was so 
happy I could scarcely contain myself.' The ruffian who 
assailed him seemed to relent, and came and sat by his 
bedside listening to his exhortations, and offered to carry 
him in his own carriage wherever he wished to go. The 
itinerant was cited, however, before a magistrate, who 
boisterously charged him with violating the laws. 'Be as- 



216 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

sured,' replied Garrettson, 'this matter will be brought to 
light in an awful eternity.' The pen dropped from the 
magistrate's hand, and the preacher was allowed to retire; 

* * * and that night was preaching in a private house, 
though his bed was his pulpit. * * * 

The next day he rode many miles and preached twice, 
his face 'bruised, scarred and bedewed with tears.' His 
hearers were deeply affected, and his own soul was tri- 
umphant with grateful joy that he could suffer for Christ. 
'It seemed,' he writes, 'as if I could have died for Him.' 
In a few days he returned courageously to the place of his 
sufferings and preached to a numerous and deeply affected 
concourse of people. He had conquered the field. * * * 

He began his labors in Dover, Delaware, amid a storm 
of opposition in the latter part of 1778. * * * Hardly 
had he dismounted from his horse when the mob gathered, 
crying out, 'He is a Tory; hang him, hang him!' while 
others shouted in his defense. * * * <i ^^g jn a fair 
way,' he said, 'to be torn to pieces.' He was rescued, how- 
ever, by some friendly gentlemen, one of whom * * * 
bade him preach. The ringleader of the mob repented 

* * * and Garrettson preached repeatedly in the town. 

He went into Sussex County, and at Broad Creek 
preached to hundreds, in a wood. * * * One of his 
hearers afterwards attempted to shoot him, coming into 
the audience with a pistol for the purpose, but was pre- 
vented. * * * A hearer from Salisbury was converted 
and opened the way for his preaching in that town. Gar- 
rettson was t^'ireatened by the leading townsmen, with im- 
prisonment. Tlie sheriff came to seize him, but was con- 
founded and left him. * * ♦ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 217 

He preached in Dorchester County, and while there was 
attacked on the highway by a mob and taken, after dark, 
before a magistrate, who ordered him to prison. On the 
way to the jail his conductors were dispersed by being 
frightened by lightning, and he escaped. The following 
Sunday he was again attacked by a mob, headed by an 
aged man %ith locks as white as a sheet,' who had a pistol 
in his hand. The evangelist was seized while he was 
preaching. He was taken to Cambridge jail where, for a 
fortnight, 'I had,' says he, 'a dirty floor for my bed, my 
saddle bags for my pillow, and two large windows open, 
with a cold east wind blowing upon me, but I had great 
consolation in my Lord.' " 

PHILIP GATCH AND JOHN COOPER 

"During most of the period now under review, 1775- 
1784, Philip Gatch was ^abundant in labors' and suffer- 
ings. Though he escaped imprisonment, he was, perhaps, 
the subject of as much or more persecution for his Master's 
sake than any of his contemporaries. He was sent by the 
conference of 1775, to Kent circuit in Maryland. His col- 
league was John Cooper, a young man whom he first met 
on Frederick circuit * * * and who had suffered much 
persecution. Cooper's family opposed him. His father, 
seeing him once on his knees in a chamber, threw a shovel 
of hot embers upon him and afterward expelled him from 
his home. His trials only confirmed his faith, and he 
joined the itinerant band of evangelists and lived and died 
in their ranks. 

Gatch was soon sent to Frederick circuit. Between 
Bladensburg and Baltimore, two men seized the bffWe of 



218 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

his horse, and stopped him; others, till then in conceal- 
7iient, hailed the assailant and the preacher was led up to 
the mob. They had made preparations for him, and pro- 
ceeded to tar him. * * * «l felt,' said he, 'an uninter- 
rupted peace/ * * * At length one of the company 
cried out in mercy, *It is enough.' The last stroke, made 
with the paddle, with which the tar was applied, was 
drawn across the naked eyeball, which caused severe pain, 
^from which,' he says, 'I have never entirely recovered. 
* * * I was then taken from my horse, which was a 
very spirited animal. Two men led him by the bridle, 
while the one, elevated to. a suitable height, applied the 
tar. My horse became so frightened that when they let 
him go he dashed off with such violence that I could not 
rein him up for some time, and narrowly escaped having 
my brains dashed out against a tree. If I ever felt for 
the souls of men I did for theirs.' * * * The leader of 
the mob, who had applied the tar, and several of his asso- 
ciates were afterward converted, but a conspiracy was 
formed by others to waylay, if not to murder the itinerant. 
A number of ruffians concealed themselves under a bridge 
with weapons to attack him who should pass over it. The 
design was revealed to some of his friends, and one of them 
Tode over the bridge while he was sent around another 
road. The conspirators rushed upon his friend, but were 
confounded when they discovered not the preacher, but one 
of their own neighbors. Gatch escaped and went on his 
way rejoicing and preaching. * * * 

In 1777 he was sent to Sussex, Virginia, in enfeebled 
health, but the persecutors ceased not to attack him. One 
Sabbath morning while riding to his appointment, he was 
seized by two strong men, who caught hold of his arms 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 219 

and turned them in opposite directions with such violence 

that he thought his shoulder would be dislocated, causing 

torture which he supposed must resemble the rack. 

* * * 

His shoulders were bruised, they turned black, and it 
was some fime before he recovered the use of them. His 
lungs, which were weak, grew worse than 'ever and the 
following year he was compelled to retire from the work/^ 

BENJAMIN ABBOTT AND STERLING 

The next of the early Methodists whose history we re- 
view is Benjamin Abbott. The "History of Methodism'^ 
says of him : 

"It is difficult to trace with exactness, through the 
present period, the labors of Benjamin Abbott, in many 
respects the most remarkable evangelist in the eventful 
field. * * * 

If we can pause at all over his exciting narrative, it is 
to wonder at the moral, the beneficent efficacy of his min- 
istrations, the peculiar, the magnetic eloquence of his un- 
polished discourse;, and the questionable, if not inexplic- 
able problems of its physical effects. Seldom does he 
preach without some of these 'physical phenomena,' his 
hearers fall like dead men to the earth. * * *'' 

The preaching of Mr. Abbott made the devil rage, but 
the Lord blessed his word and worked in a powerful man- 
ner. He says, "We appointed a watch night. This brought 
so many to see what it meant that the house could not 
contain the people. One of our preachers preached; the 
Lord poured out His spirit in such a manner that the 
slain lay all over the house; many others were prevented 



2^^0 MARTYRS I:N- ALL AGES. 

from falling by the crowd, which stood so close that they 
supported one another. We continued till about midnight; 
some stayed all night and in the morning others came; 
several found peace, and many cried to God for mercy; it 
was a powerful time to many souls. 

These extraordinary effects sometimes spread through 
nearly his whole congregation, few escaping, except such 
as rushed out of doors, or leaped out of windows. * * * 
Abbott and his companion. Sterling, continued their travels 
and labors without intermission; almost everywhere at- 
tended with such remarkable scenes. 

In the latter part of 1780 Abbott writes: 'I had been 
pressed in spirit for some time to visit Pennsylvania, and, 
in the love and fear of God, I set out with my life in my 
hand, it being at a time when war was raging in the land.' 
He crossed the Delaware to New Castle, and opened his 
mission in that town to a 'pack of ruffians' who had met to 
mob him. One of them stood before him with a bottle of 
rum in his hand, threatening to throw it at his head. 
Abbott preached on, however, dealing out to them the *ter- 
rors of the law,' in a manner he had seldom done before. 
* * * He was now known through much of the land 
as one of the most extraordinary preachers of Methodism 
— a Boanerges before whom gainsayers, persecutors, and 
mobs yielded or were prostrated." 

PETER CARTWRIGHT 

It is evident from the foregoing that pioneer Methodist 
preachers in this country knew what it is to suffer perse- 
cution. Peter Cartwright, bom in Amherst County, New 
Jersey, 1785, was one of them, and preached a full gospel. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 3M 

We JTidge from his writings that certain peculiar "wild 
exercises," as he called them, were not uncommon in his 
meetings, and on one occasion they brought persecution to 
him. Two finely attired, fashionable ladies took the jerks in 
one of his meetings. He had swallowed a little peppermint 
from a phial before he began to preach. The two young la- 
dies' brothers swore to horsewhip him. One of them swore 
that he gave, to the young ladies out of the phial, some- 
thing that gave them the jerks, and finding his efforts to 
persuade them of their error futile, he jerked the phial 
of peppermint from his pocket and said, "Yes, if I gave 
your sisters the jerks 1^11 give them to you.'' The angry 
young man did not wait to- try the peppermint; but fled 
and left the preacher. 

On another occasion a large crowd of rowdies came to 
break up his meeting, armed with clubs, dirks, knives and 
horsewhips. He ordered the magistrates to take two of 
them who were disturbing the meeting and they said they 
could not, so he acted as officer. A drunken magistrate 
told him to let them go at the risk of his life, but he would 
not. In a few moments friends of order rushed upon the 
mob and cleared the tent. In a meeting that followed it 
was estimated that three hundred fell like dead men. Sin- 
ners were all mourners and no altar call was made, and the 
christians shouted so the noise was heard afar off. The 
meeting lasted all night and two hundred professed sal- 
vation. 

In another meeting a young man sought to whip him, 
and in an attempt to carry out the latter threat^ both he 
and his opponent were ducked. Another young man strung 
some frogs and was hanging around the altar waiting for 
a chance to place them around Mr. Cartwright's neck, 



222 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

when suddenly the mighty power of God struck him and 
he fell full length inside the altar and "roared like a bull 
in a net/' says Mr. Cartwright. "At daybreak/' he con- 
tinues, "after an all night struggle, he began to shout the 
victory and during the day made the confession about the 
frogs." He said he never wanted to know a worse Hell 
than his convictions. Many other rowdies were stricken 
down and converted. One enraged man swore to not only 
whip ; but to kill him, and many a perilous scene he passed 
through and related in his later years to show Methodist 
preachers of the present day the difference between walk- 
ing on Brussels carpets and eating yellow legged chickens, 
and walking through mud and water and eating nothing 
for days. 

He gives an interesting account of a local preacher who 
was persecuted by his wife as Wesley was. He says : 

"She was high tempered, overbearing, quarrelsome, and 
a violent opposer of religion. She would not fix her hus- 
band's clothes to go out and preach, and was unwilling he 
should ask a blessing at the table, or pray in the family. 
When he would attempt to pray she would not conform, 
but tear around and make all the noise and disturbance in 
her power. She would turn the chairs over while he was 
reading, singing, or praying, and if she could not stop 
him in any other way, she would catch a cat and 
throw it into his face while he was kneeling and trying 
to pray. Poor little man ! Surely he was tormented al- 
most to desperation. He inyited several preachers home 
with him to talk to her, and see if they could not moderate 
her, but all to no purpose ; she would curse them to their 
face, and rage like a demon. He had insisted on my 
going home with him several times, but I frankly confess 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 223 

I was afraid to trust myself. I pitied him from my very 
heart,, and so did everybody else who was acquainted with 
his situation. But at length I yielded to his importuni- 
ties, and went home with him one evening, intending to 
stay all night. After we arrived I saw in a moment that 
she was mad, and the devil was in her as large as an 
alligator; and I fixed my purpose and determined on my 
course. After supper he said to her very kindly, 'Come, 
wife, stop your little affairs, and let us have prayer.' That 
moment she boiled over and said, 'I will have none of 
your praying about me.' I spoke to her mildly and ex- 
postulated with her and tried to reason ; but no, the further 
I went, the more wrathful she became, and she cursed me 
most bitterly. I then put on a stem countenance, and 
said to her, 'Madam, if you were a w^ife of mine, I would 
break you of your bad ways, or I would break your neck.' 

'The devil you would !' said she. 'Yes, you are a pretty 
christian, ain't you?' And then such a volley of curses 
as she poured on me was almost beyond human endurance. 

'Be still,' said I; 'we must and will have prayer.' But 
she declared we should not. 

'Now,' said I to her, 'if you do not be still, and behave 
yourself I'll put 3^ou out of doors.' 

At this she clinched her fist, and swore she was one-half 
alligator and the other half snapping turtle, and that it 
would take a better man than I to put her out. It was 
a small cabin we were in, and we were not far from the 
door, which was then standing open. I caught her by the 
arm, and swinging her around in a circle, brought her 
right up to the door, and shoved her out. She jumped 
up, tore her hair, foamed and such swearing as she uttered 
was seldom equalled, and never surpassed. 



224 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

The door, or shutter of the door, was very strongly made 
to keep out hostile Indians ; I shut it tight, barred it, went 
to prayer and I prayed as best I could, but I have no 
language at my command to describe my feelings; at the 
same time, I was determined to conquer, or die in the 
attempt. While she was raging and foaming in the yard 
and around the cabin, I started a spiritual song, and sang 
loudly to drovrn her voice as much as possible. The five 
or six little children ran and squatted about and crawled 
under the beds. Poor things, they were scared almost to 
death. 

I sang on, and she roared and thundered on the out- 
side, till she became perfectly exhausted, and panted for 
breath. At length, when she had spent her force, she 
became calm and still, and then knocked at the door, say- 
ing, ^Mr. Cartwright, please let me in.' 

^Will you behave yourself if I let you in V said I. 

'0 yes,' said she, *I will,' and throwing myself on my 
guard, and perfectly self-possessed, I opened the door, took 
her by the hand, led her in, and seated her near the fire- 
place. She had roared and foamed until she was in a 
high perspiration, and looked pale as death. After she 
took her seat, *0h,' said she, ^what a fool I am !' 

'Yes,' said I, 'about one of the biggest fools I ever saw 
in all my life, and now,' said I, 'you have got to repent of 
all this, or you must go to the devil at last.' She was 
silent. Said I, 'Children, come out here, your mother 
won't hurt you now,' and turning to her husband said, 
'Brother C, let us pray again.' We kneeled down, and 
both prayed, and she was quiet as a lamb. 

And now, gentle reader, although this was one of the 
hardest cases I ever saw on this earth, I must record it^ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 225 

to the glory of divine grace that I lived to see, in less than 
six months after this frolic with the devil, this woman 
soundly converted to God, and if there was ever a changed 
mortal for the better, it was this woman, ♦ * * and 
she was as bold in the cause of God as she had been in the 
cause of the devil." 

V\^EST INDIES 

The first missionaries who attempted to carry the news 
of the gospel to the West Indies, met with much opposition, 
especially from the white people there. The Moravians 
sold themselves as slaves so as to labor among them, and 
to be able to preach to the Africans in these Islands. In 
the year 1816, the Methodist chapel at Barbadoes was 
totally demolished and the authorities did not interfere in 
the least with the work of destruction, but in a short time 
a proclamation was issued offering reward to any person 
who would apprehend the desperadoes; but the mob said 
that to apprehend them, meant death at the hands of the 
mob, instead of reward; and the people feared mob rule 
and so far as is known, no efforts were made to carrv out 
the governor's order. 

In August, 1832, there was an insurrection at Demarara, 
among the negroes, and the white people, especially the 
missionaries, were charged with being the cause of it and 
accordingly many of them were placed in stocks and im- 
prisoned. One of the directors of the London Missionary 
Society says in regard to Mr. Smith, a missionary, who 
was in prison, and over whom a guard was stationed, 
"Numerous false reports have been sent forth in regard to 
Mr. Smith, but assure yourself and all the directors that 
regardless of whatsoever, reports you may hear the only 



^26 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

crime of which the missionaries have been convicted is 
their zeal for the conversion of the negroes." Some of the 
negroes testified against Mr. Smith. He was tried, con- 
demned and sentenced to death. Finally the sentence was 
reversed; but he languished in prison and died before the 
news reached him. The subjoined death notice appeared 
in a Demarara paper: 

'DIED — In the colonial jail, at Demarara, February 
ninth, where he had been confined as a state prisoner since 
the twenty-sixth of November last; and on the termina- 
tion of his trial by the general court martial, on a charge 
of high treason, sentence thereon having been transmitted 
to his majesty for his final decision — JOHN" SMITH, 
missionary.' The conviction which results from our in- 
formation on the subject is, that, through prejudice and 
exasperated feeling, Mr. Smith was condemned, being 
innocent. 

The following year the Wesleyan Methodists suffered 
much from the hands of the Eoman Catholics in St. 
Domingo. Showers of stones were thrown at them and 
they were everywhere noted as "fanatics." They were not 
only in disgrace, but in prison, both men and women. The 
chief judge forbade them holding any more meetings but 
kindly granted them the privilege to worship God in their 
homes as they pleased. They were duly notified that if 
they assembled for a meeting again they would be again 
cast into prison; and the act would be repeated as often 
as they chose to disobey the order. Tbe next day they 
assembled for another meeting, their zeal continuing un- 
abated, and were subjected to another shower of stones. 
A letter written at this time is worthy of place before our 
readers : 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 227 

"Since the Lord granted us the favor of meeting again, 
we have continued our assemblies without intermission, 
although forbidden to do this under pain of prison and 
exile. The only interruption we meet with is bad words, 
and a few stones now and then; I am become so marked, 
that I cannot go out without people crying after me, 
^Methodist ! Parson V — with a contemptuous sneer, and a 
thousand other things not fit to write, but which serve 
only to strengthen my faith in the promise of Him who 
is faithful. * * * f^^ hairs of our head are all num- 
bered. * * * j^ would be useless for us to ask or hope 
for the protection of the law; and we are thus led to 
place all our confidence in God, who can and will deliver 
us in His time. And if the Lord is for me, of whom shall 
I be afraid? He that spared not His own Son, but de- 
livered Him up for me, will He not with Him freely give 
me all things? I have already experienced that all my 
suffering for Him are great blessings to me. All my care 
is about His church; and what wisdom it does require to 
conduct so many persons of such different dispositions. I 
feel new wants daily .^' 

A letter written the next year says, "I have read of 
many instances of martyrdom for the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, but I have not yet read a passage which relates 
that the people of a city rose up like murderers, with a very 
few exceptions, to stone a few persons met together, in a 
house, as our fathers, mothers, brethren and children have 
done unto us not long ago. cruel people ! They began 
to throw stones at us at five o'clock in the afternoon, and 
continued till ten o'clock. * * * They broke down 
the doors, broke open the windows, destroyed the first and 
second partitions of the upper chamber; in a word every- 



328 MAETYRS IN ALL AGES. 

thing there was in the house, and beat with their cow 
skin whips, the brethren and sisters there, without show- 
ing compassion for either age, youth or infancy. I believe 
I have suffered the least of any. * * * It is impossible 
to go out without being beaten, stoned, dragged, abused and 
covered with dirt. We could neither buy nor sell without 
being dragged before a magistrate, beaten, covered with 
spittle and mud, and all kinds of outrages." A proclama- 
tion was made for their protection; but the people did 
not cease to insult and persecute them, and all without 
cause. At the present time the "West India Islands are 
almost wholly without witnesses and preachers who have 
the Holy Ghost. Who will go to them? 

BAPTIST MISSIONA 

The Baptist church today is as dead as any other old 
denomination, but at one time the Baptists had salvation. 
Among the first missionaries to leave this country for 
India were Mr. and Mrs. Adoniram Judson of the Bap- 
tist church. They labored for some time in Hindustan 
and then settled in Rangoon, in 1813. Eleven years later 
a war broke out in which Burma was involved and these 
two missionaries who were at the capital were arrested 
and confined for months in prison. An account of their 
sufferings is given in a letter to Mrs. Judson's brother, 
dated May twenty-sixth, 1836, from which we quote the 
following : 

"The first certain intelligence we received of the declara- 
tion of war by the Burmese, was on our arrival at Tsenpyoo- 
kywon, about a hundred miles this side of Ava, where part 
of the troops under command of th» celebrated Bandoola, 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 229 

had encamped. For several weeks nothing took place to 
alarm us, and we went on with our school. Mr. Judson 
preached every Sabbath; all the material for building a 
brick house was procured, and the masons had made con- 
siderable progress in raising the building. 

On' the twenty-third of May, 1824, just as we had con- 
cluded worship at the doctor's house, a messenger came 
to inform us that Eangoon was taken by the English. The 
government was now all in motion. An army of ten or 
twelve thousand was sent off in three or four days. 

On the eighth of June, just as we were preparing for 
dinner, in rushed an officer, holding a black boot, with a 
dozen Burmans, accompanied by one, whom, from his 
spotted face, we knew to be an executioner. * * * 
^Where is the teacher?' was the first inquiry. Mr. Judson 
presented himself. *You are called by the king,' said the 
officer; a form of speech always used when about to arrest 
a criminal. The spotted man instantly seized Mr. Judson, 
threw him on the floor, and produced the small cord, the 
instrument of torture. I caught hold of his arm; 'Stay,' 
said I, *I will give you money.' 'Take her too,' said the 
officer, 'she also is a foreigner.' 

Mr. Judson, with an imploring look, begged they would 
let me remain until further orders. The scene was now 
shocking beyond description. The whole neighborhood was 
now collected — the masons at work on the brick house 
threw down their tools and ran — the little Burmese chil- 
dren were screaming and crying — the Bengalese servants 
stood in amazement at the indignities offered their master 
— and the hardened executioner, with a hellish joy, drew 
the cords tighter, bound Mr. Judson, and dragged him 
off, I knew not whither. In vain I begged and entreated 



230 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

the spotted faced man to take the silver, and loosen the 
ropes but he spumed my offers and immediately departed. 
I gave the money, however, to Moung Ing to follow after, 
to make some further attempt to mitigate the torture of 
Mr. Judson; but instead of succeeding, when a few rods 
from the house, the unfeeling wretches again threw their 
prisoner to the ground, and drew the cords still tighter; 
so as to almost prevent respiration. 

The officer and his gang proceeded to the court house, 
where the governor of the city and officers were collected, 
one of whom read the order of the king, to commit Mr. 
Judson to the death prison, into which he was soon hurled, 
the door closed — and Moung Ing saw no more. 

What a night before me! I retired to my room and 
endeavored to obtain consolation by committing my case 
to God, and imploring fortitude and strength to suffer 
whatever awaited me. * * * 

The next morning I sent Moung Ing to ascertain the 
situation of Mr. Judson, and give him food, if still living. 
He soon returned with the intelligence that he and the 
white foreigners were all confined in the deatli prison, with 
three pair of iron fetters each, and fastened to a long 
pole, to prevent their moving. The point of my anguish 
now was, that I was a prisoner myself, and could make no 
effort for the release of the missionaries. * * * 

On the third day, I sent a message to the governor of 
the city, * * * asking that he allow me to visit him 
with a present. This had the desired effect; and he im- 
mediately sent orders to the guards to permit my going 
to town. The governor received me pleasantly; and asked 
what I wanted. I stated to him the -rituation of the for- 
eigners and particularly that of the teachers, who were 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 331 

Americans, and had nothing to do with the war. He told 
me it was not in his power to release them from prison, or 
irons, but that he could make their situation more com- 
fortable. * * * 

*Pay to me,' said he, *two hundred tickals (about a hun- 
dred dollars), two pieces of fine cloth, and two pieces of 
handkerchiefs.' I had taken money with me in the morn- 
ing, our house being two miles from the prison, I could not 
easily return. This I offered to the governor. * * * 
He hesitated for some time, but fearing to lose sight of so 
much money, he concluded to take it, promising to release 
the teachers from their most painful situation. * * * 
They were taken out of the common prison and confined 
in an open shed in the prison inclosure. Here I was al- 
lowed to send them food, and mats to sleep on; but was 
not permitted to enter for several days. * * * 

The following morning, the royal treasurer, * * * 
who was in future our steady friend, attended by forty or 
fifty followers, came to take possession of all we had. 
* * * They apologized for what they were about to do, 
by saying that it was painful for them to take possession 
of property not their own, but they were compelled to do 
so by order of the king. * * * rJ^■^Q continual extor- 
tions and oppressions to which Mr. Judson and the other 
white prisoners were subjected, are indescribable. * * * 

There were above a hundred prisoners shut up in one 
room, without a breath of air excepting from the cracks 
in the boards. I sometimes obtained permission to go to 
the door for five minutes, when my heart sickened at the 
wretchedness exhibited. * * * The acme of my dis- 
tresses consisted in the awful uncertainty of our fate. My 
prevailing opiniojx was^ that my husband would suffer vio- 



232 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

lent death; and that I, of course, should become a slave, 
and languish out a miserable, though short existence in the 
t3Tannical hands of some unfeeling monster. But the con- 
solations of religion during these trying circumstances, 
were neither ^few nor small.' It taught me to look beyond 
this world, to that rest, that peaceful, happy rest where 
Jesus reigns, and oppression never enters. * * * 

In a short time, my watchings and fatigue, together with 
my miserable food, and more miserable lodgings, brought 
on one of the diseases of the country. * * * Our dear 
little Maria was the greatest sufferer, * * * and 
neither a nurse nor a drop of milk could be procured in 
the village. By taking presents to the jailer, I begged 
permission for Mr, J. to come out of the prison, and take 
the emaciated creature around the village, to beg a little 
nourishment from those mothers who had young children. 
Her cries in the night were heart-rending, when it was im- 
possible to supply her wants. I now began to think the 
afflictions of Job had come upon me. When in health I 
could bear the various trials and vicissitudes through which 
I was called to pass. But to be confined with sickness, and 
unable to assist those who were so near and dear to me, 
when in distress, was almost too much for me to bear; and 
had it not been for the consolations of religion, and an 
assured conviction that every additional trial was ordered 
by infinite love and mercy, I must have sunk under my 
accumulated sufferings. * * * 

Soon my health declined and I was seized with the 
spotted fever, with all its attendant horrors. While re- 
covering from this, the servant brought me the news that 
Mr. Judson had returned and had again been imprisoned. 
* * * I could only plead with that great and powerful 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 233 

Being who has said, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble, 
and I will hear, and thou shalt glorify me' ; and who made 
me, at this time, to feel so powerfully this promise, that 
I became quite composed, feeling sure that my prayer 
would be answered. In a short time, Mr. Judson was re- 
leased and taken to the governor's house where he was 
treated with every possible kindness and where I was re- 
moved as soon as my health would allow. 

The treaty of peace was concluded, and signed by both 
parties, and a termination of hostilities publicly declared. 
We soon left for the mission house, which we reached, after 
an absence of two years and three months." 

TESTIMONY OP G. W. HENRY 

G. W. Henry, author of "Shouting, Genuine and 
Spurious," says, in his book, of the persecution of the true 
people of his day, "The flame of persecution waxed hot 
and blazed high ; yet the bush was unconsumed. The vilest 
epithets were heaped upon them, their peculiarities were 
magnified, and rendered so odious by misrepresentation, 
that, by brethren in distant neighborhoods, they were looked 
upon as Vild cats' rather than christians." 

ELIJAH SARIN, LORENZO DOW AND OTHERS 

Dow (the eccentric), Abner Wood, Langdon, and Crawford. 

The "History of Methodism" gives a concise report of 
the trials of Elijah Sabin, Hibbard, Hedding, Lorenzo 

"Elijah Sabin was mobbed in Needham circuit, where 
he preached in the open air. Some of his brethren at the 
conference would moderate his zeal; but Asbury approved 



234 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

him, affirming, *this is the way Methodist preachers began.' 
* * * Boston Methodists suffered much from the 
rabble. * * * Hibbard fought his way through in- 
tolerable trials on Granville circuit. He speaks of twenty- 
six sermons a month. * * * ^gome threw stones at 
me, and some set their dogs on me as I rode along; but 
the Lord defended me. I never had a stone hit me, nor 
a dog bite me. Some threatened to whip me, but I escaped 
all. I heard many threats but none laid hands on me.' " 

Elijah Hedding received license to preach in 1801, and 
supplied the place of Lorenzo Dow who had gone to preach 
in Ireland. "In some places Hedding was hooted and 
threatened in the streets. * * * Abner Wood was 
horsewhipped. * * * ^j-m ^i^qj prevailed; but their 
persecutors were often marvelously awakened." 

"In Lancaster, Vermont, Langdon, Clark, and Crawford 
were assailed by the mob. The ruffians cowered before the 
courage of Langdon, who was a gigantic and brave man; 
but they carried off Crawford and ducked him in the river 
with huzzas. * * * Washburn had similar trials, 
though better escapes. 'I have had,' he says, ^stones and 
snowballs cast at me in volleys. I have had great dogs sent 
after me, to frighten my horse, * * * i3ut I was never 
harmed by any of them. I have been saluted with the 
sound of 'Glory, Hosanna, Amen, Hallelujah !' mixed with 
oaths and profanity." * * * Even in Middleton, Con- 
necticut, the Methodists suffered much persecution. Stock- 
ing of Glastenbury, long a venerated local preacher, writes, 
"I have been stoned, and my life put in jeopardy, by the 
lav/less mob." Open persecution continued there until put 
down by the strong arm of the law. * * * Ostrander, 
reporting a gr-eat revival there m 180^ says, "The spirit 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 235 

of persecution is much awake. The houses where we are 
assembled are frequently stoned, and the windows broken 
to pieces, but all this does not move the young converts, 
who are bold as lions." 

"Kibby was threatened with violence in Marblehead, and 
advised to leave the town, but stood his ground success- 
fully. The Methodists in those days were in many places 
persecuted even to fines and the seizure of their goods; 
and, were sometimes, imprisoned by the dominant church. 
They were denounced from the pulpits, maltreated in the 
courts, interrupted in the course of their sermons with 
charges of heresy, and assailed in the streets by the rabble. 
Washburn, * * * ^iSiS hooted through the villages; 
Hedding, cursed with outcries on the highway; Dow's 
nose was publicly wrung; * * * Christie, summoned 
out of bed to answer to a charge of violating the laws, by 
marrying a couple of his people; Willard wounded in the 
eye by a blow, the effects of which was seen through his 
life; Mudge denied the rights of a clergyman, and ar- 
raigned before a magistrate for assuming them; * * * 
and Taylor was drummed out of town. It requires more 
determination to endure such grievances than to meet 
graver trials ; but the early Methodist itinerants were proof 
against both. With all its poverty and privation the 
church prevailed surprisingly during this period. There 
wcT-e at its close, more than ten thousand Methodists in 
New England." 

We read also of Simon Carlisle's persecution, which was 
more cruel than the infliction of physical suffering. He 
was falsely accused of theft and expelled from the Metho- 
dist conference in 1794, having been arrested and adjudged 
guilty. Surely, it seems that the wicked prevailed against 



236 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

him, and for two years he suffered cruel ostracism and then 
the real criminal confessed his crime and proclaimed Mr. 
Carlisle's innocence so the latter was restored to the 
ministry. 

IN MADAGASCAR 

"In 1835 the profession of the christian religion was de- 
clared illegal in Madagascar; all worship was to cease and 
all religious books were ordered to be given up. By the 
middle of the following year all the English missionaries 
were obliged to leave the island, and for twenty-five years 
the most strenuous efforts were made by the queen and hei 
government to suppress all opposition to her commands. 
This, however, only served to show in a very remarkable 
manner, the courage and faith of the christian Malagasy, 
of whom about two hundred suffered death in various cruel 
forms, while many hundreds were punished more or less 
severely by fine, degradation, imprisonment and slavery. 

BISHOP TAYLOR AND WILLIAM HILL 

Bishop Taylor says, "The peril of Christ's cause in Mad- 
agascar now, is its popularity with the government, and 
the patronage it brings." Is not this the mark of apostasy 
in the United States as well? A sham religion has been 
palmed off on people who would not think of bowing to 
wood and stone. It is an easy going kind that the devil 
does not think worth while to oppose. It is not Bible 
religion, it is not the religion of Jesus Christ. Holy Ghost 
religion makes the one who has it a target for the devil 
and the curses of people who will not get right. 

Bishop Taylor has given a number of interesting inci- 
dents in connection with his work, which sliow that he 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 237 

believed in a rugged kind of salvation, a salvation that 
stirs carnality in the breasts of the unsaved. He says that 
during a series of meetings which he conducted in this 
country, two beautiful young ladies were saved, whose par- 
ents bitterly opposed them. He met the father and told 
him that his two daughters had accepted Jesus as their 
Savior and joined the Methodists. The father was in- 
furiated and beat the young ladies unmercifully and for- 
bade their ever attending a Methodist meeting again. They, 
however, chose to "obey God rather than man," and re- 
mained true to God in spite of the most awful persecution 
at home. 

When Satan found that Bishop Taylor was about to 
plant missions in South Africa he set about to kill him. 
He was out by the seashore December, 1877, when a 
trooper hurried up the bluffs, followed by armed soldiers. 
One of the soldiers, an Indian intoxicated by rum, took 
deliberate aim and Taylor knew it would be useless to run 
so he turned aside quickly ; the Indian sprang upon him ; 
Mr. Taylor grasped the barrel of his rifle and began to 
say, "Amigos, amigos," which being interpreted means, 
"Friends, friends." They shook hands and the Indian 
marched off with the other soldiers. 

He tells of a native christian of Cape Colony, South 
Africa, who, with unsaved travelers, was passing over a 
hill and was met by a lion. They all fled and the christian 
outran them. Suddenly he thought that he could give 
himself for them, as they were not saved, so he turned back 
to let the lion feast on him, and let his companions escape, 
as one of them must surely be overtaken and destroyed. 
The two men passed him and the lion struck the christian 
down. He said, "I would rather die and give them a 



238 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

chance for repentance."' They, seeing that he had given 
his life for them, turned and fired on the lion, which 
dropped dead before the bleeding christian. "Some would 
even dare to die." Thus the willing martyr was saved to 
live for God. 

Another incident is told by Taylor, of a British soldier 
stationed at Montreal, Canada. His persecution began 
before he was saved. Mr. Taylor had told him that he 
could get saved at the barracks and so he said, "I kneeled 
down by my bunk, and the soldiers began to swear at me 
saying, *Here is a fellow on his knees,' and they pelted me 
with their old boots and shoes and whatever they could get 
hold of, but I paid no attention ; but kept on crying, ^Lord, 
be merciful to me, a sinner.' I felt worse and worse until 
finally I surrendered to God, and the Holy Ghost notified 
me of my pardon, just as you said He would. I laid on 
my bunk and praised God all the rest of the night, and all 
this day I have been walking the streets of Montreal, prais- 
ing God for this great salvation." 

The martyrdom, many years ago, of Eev. William Hill, 
a member of the Australian conference, is told by Bishop 
Taylor in "The Story of my Life." His tragic death took 
place at Melbourne, Australia. He visited in jail, a man 
who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life, for mur- 
der in the first degree. William Hill was loved and highly 
esteemed by the prison officials who welcomed his gratuitous 
services among the prisoners, allowing him to go into their 
cells and talk and pray with each one, personally. One 
day while in this murderer's cell, praying for him, the 
condemned man seized an iron bar and summoning his 
strength for one mighty blov/, hit the preacher's head, and 
knocked his brains out. The verdict was changed and he 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 239 

was sentenced to be hanged. Other ministers visited, and 
prayed with him; and before the time came for him to 
hang, he professed to be saved. 

Mr. Taylor tells also of one of his converts in Australia. 
He was first converted to Mr. Taylor and said that if any 
one molested Taylor he would knock him down. Soon 
after both he and his wife were converted to God and im- 
mediately his former companions began to deride him, but 
he boldly gave his testimony. Mr. Taylor says, "The man 
who claimed to be his minister called to see him and said, 
'Mr. M., I hear that you have been to the meetings of that 
foreigner, and that you have been mixed up with +hese 
despised Methodists. I hope it is not so.' 

'Yes, it is and I am glad of it,' said Mr. M. ^And allow 
me to say, ever since I came to this town, you have had 
free access to my house and to my sideboard, to help your- 
self to whatever you wanted; you have laughed and joked 
with me and drank whiskey with me through all these years 
but never hinted to mC;, in all this time, that I had a soul 
to be saved. And now God has had mercy on me through 
the agency of Mr. Taylor, I think you ought to be glad 
and rejoice with me.' 

'Then, Mr. M., will you promise me that you will not 
leave your mother church ?' 

'No sir; my mother church never gave me any motherly 
attention, so I shall hold myself free to join the church in 
which I can and do get the most good.' " 

MONROVIA^ LIBERIA 

On the introduction of Christianity into the district of 
Monrovia, Liberia, the first missionaries were welcomed by 
a shower of deadly missiles, but one great king took their 



340 MAKTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

part and allowed 'them possession of the cape. George S. 
Brown was sent there as missionary, working through in- 
terpreters. About two hundred heathen professed Christ, 
abandoned their idols and their polygamy and became con- 
sistent christians. The king boasted that he would eat Mr. 
Brown. One morning, about four, he heard the cry of 
war, and soon the muskets and spears of armed men were 
closing around him. Mr. Brown immediately dropped on 
his knees, called upon God for help and was delivered. 

MOSLEM COUNTRIES 

Since 1453 Turkey has been the scene of frequent out- 
breaks of the most frightful barbarities and most hellish 
cruelties. When Constantinople was besieged, by Mahomet 
the Second, the Turks subjected the christians to the most 
frightful deaths, sawing some asunder, tearing others to 
pieces by tying them to wild horses, dragging them through 
the streets until dead, burying them to their necks and 
leaving them in the earth to die ; hundreds of women were 
the victims of the most deplorable crimes and shocking 
tragedies, and young maidens who were spared the fate of 
their mothers were captured to serve as maids of honor to 
the sultans, or to be sold, and we know that in many of 
the Oriental countries the persecution of missionaries in 
the present century is as rampant as ever before. The 
daily papers have kept the world posted in regard to the 
things that Armenian and other christians have suffered. 
We cannot believe that all who were destroyed by the 
Kurds when the Armenian villages were burned, were 
saved people; but we doubt not that among the mission- 
aries who have escaped death and are still laboring there, 
the Lord may have some real heroes of the cross. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 241 

ARABIA 

The missionaries in foreign lands have hard paths to 
tread; but God watches over them. One of them tells of 
a plot laid to kill him in Arabia, and of miraculous deliv- 
erance from his enemies. One night he was awakened by 
someone rapping heavily upon his door. He asked who 
was there and they said, "Open the door." Again he asked 
who they were and what they wished. The only reply was 
that if he did not open the door they would break it down. 
As soon as he admitted them, they said they were there to 
kill him. He told them there was no need for them to be 
in a hurry, made some coffee, and they talked a while. 
Then they took their revolvers, pointed at his head and 
said again, "We are going to kill you." He answered, 
"Well, why do 3^ou not do it? Why wait so long?" They 
were astonished and stopped and asked if he were not 
afraid to die. He replied that he was not afraid because 
as soon as he was killed his soul would go to Heaven to be 
with Jesus. They said they were afraid to kill him if he 
was not afraid to die. Then he showed them several pic- 
tures of Christ and they became so interested that he talked 
to them about the Son of God until daybreak. They then 
went away, promising to disturb him no more. 

A short time afterward he was sent for to visit a 
wounded man who said he was the meanest man in all the 
country and asked if he could be forgiven. When told 
that if he would repent and confess all his sins Jesus 
would surely forgive him ; he confessed to having murdered 
several men ; began to cry to God for forgiveness and soon 
fell back into the missionary's arms dead. His last word 
was, "Jesus>" 



242 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 



VIVIAN A. DAKE 



The Pentecost bands are now almost as free from marks 
of the Holy Ghost, as any worldly organization; but it 
would seem from a study of their organizer and leader, 
Rev. Vivian A. Dake, that he once had the Holy Ghost. 
The following is a brief record of what he and his co- 
workers suffered : 

"Fiery persecution at T.," "Arrested," "Hose turned on 
workers,'' "Mob work at S.," "Mob work at A.," "Perse- 
cution," "Mob again," "Arrested again," "Mob work at S.," 
"Opposition by Catholics," "Shameful treatment," "Ar- 
rested again," "Arrested again," "Arrested again," "Struck 
with a brick," "Shower of eggs," "Knocked down in the 
mud," "Wheels removed," "Worker knocked down," "Infi- 
dels and Spiritualists try to break up the meetings," "Mob 
at P.," "Threatened about jail," "Workers arrested," "In 
jail again," "Opposition," "Arrested," "Arrested again, and 
imprisoned," "Eun in for shouting," "Mt. E., intense 
persecution," "More persecution," "Persecution," "Mob 
work," etc. 

It seems that the workers of the Pentecost bands were 
pursuing a hot track in the earlier part of their history as 
a holiness movement, and we greatly regret their present 
state, as, "whoever will live godly in this present world, 
shall suffer persecution." 

OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION 

Jesus was maltreated, scoffed, mocked at, and spit upon 
and they stopped His holding open air meetings. They 
stoned Him and when He preached, they kicked Him, 
cuffed Him and beat Him^, spit in His face, and scourged 




Inquisition in Holland 



(See Page 114.) 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 243 

Him on the back; and they are doing the same today to 
His followers. The people of today are as devilishly wicked 
as they were in the days of Jesus. Jesus told His disciples 
before He left them, that they would suffer many things 
for His sake, and the religion of Jesus Christ has never 
changed. It is the same^, and God is the same, yesterday, 
today and forever. 

The salvation that carried Daniel through the den of 
lions; that gave the early christians grace to be burned 
for torch lights in Nero's garden; that carried them, a 
few centuries ago, through the Inquisition, with shouts of 
praise, is the same today. Before calling the little every- 
day duties, crosses, and the minor unpleasantnesses, per- 
secutions, think of the martyrs who were torn limb from 
limb, or burned at the stake; and these little matters will 
sink into insignificance. Examine yourselves and see if 
you are in the faith. 

This that is called religion in these days, is not the 
religion of Jesus Christ. This little, quiet life that is so 
easily handled, stirs no one, puts no one under conviction, 
that shakes no one out of his sins, that rouses no one and 
brings no devils to fight, — it is not real gospel piety. 

Some one says, "Look here, I do not want the kind of 
salvation you have because people hate you so." Jesus 
said, "Marvel not if the world hate you/' The minute you 
find a man filled with the Holy Ghost, you find a man 
whom the world hates. God's people are a hated people 
and that is a part of the religion of Jesus Christ. He 
said to His disciples, "Ye shall be hated of all men for 
my name's sake." The religion that is not hated by the 
world is not God's religion. 



244 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Some one says, "The best friend that I have in the 
whole neighborhood is an old, profane, cursing, drinking, 
swearing man." Then you are not a christian, for the 
Bible says that you will be hated by all the world. These 
are not our own words, — they are the words of the Holy 
Ghost. God's people all belong to the sect that is every- 
where spoken against, and it follows that if you are not 
spoken against, you have not the kind of religion that Paul 
had, the only kind that will get you to Heaven. 

The Holy Ghost has always used the reproach and the 
persecution of God's people to convict sinners. An in- 
stance just comes to mind of a lady whose husband turned 
her out of her home in the dead of winter because she 
would not renounce Christ. She bore the injustice quietly 
in the Holy Ghost to avoid exposing the cruelty of her 
husband to her friends and even took herself to the fields 
and wrestled with God in prayer for her unsaved com- 
panion. For eighteen months she saw no change for the 
better, when one night she heard him praying and he was 
soon begging her forgiveness for all his abuse and asked 
her to pray for him. She did so, and God saved his soul 
and he became very earnest in his efforts to lead others to 
Christ, among other things giving a piece of land, which 
came into his possession, for the erection of a house of 
worship. 

Before us lies a letter, — a complaint from one who has 
"wept tears of blood," (?) because of persecution. It is 
one of the many complaints we hear from professors of 
religion. Some say they are nearly backsliding because 
they are called "saint." How dreadful! Some have even 
been called "old sanctificationist." That is still worse! 
But why not rejoice and pray for something so hot that 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 245 

you will be far removed from the danger of having the 
woe pronounced upon you that is to be pronounced upon 
those who escape persecution? Why not rejoice when we 
are counted worthy to suffer and bear reproach for Jesus? 
We are not to be carried to Heaven on flowery beds of 
ease but to suffer, and die if need be, to save others. 

How quietly Jesus bore weariness, hunger, misunder- 
standings, false accusations, scourgings, mocking and de- 
rision, smiting, the purple robe, the crown of thorns, de- 
sertion of friends, and all for lost sinners. What have 
you done for Him ? — what have you borne for Him ? 

A finely educated young lady of great talent became a 
christian and was straightway invited to give up her re- 
ligion or her place in her beautiful Kentucky home. Her 
brother, a short time before, declared that he would cer- 
tainly commit suicide if she did not give up her religion 
and thus cease to bring the family into reproach. At the 
same time a godless husband demanded that his wife 
refrain from attending gospel services. Notwithstanding 
his commands and his threats she went; and returned to 
find herself locked out of her home. She was not wanted 
there if Christ must come with her. At the same time a 
young lady was converted in a mission and upon returning 
to her home with her bright testimony was locked up and 
severely whipped by her father, and not only once, but was 
repeatedly locked up and whipped for her faith in Christ ; 
but she would not give up. She could neither be hired 
nor whipped into backsliding. She would stand for Christ. 

Many others, we recall, who have been faithful to the 
Lord, even in the face of death. The true people of God 
well know what it is to suffer for Jesus' sake. 



246 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Many times angry parents have tried to drag their chil- 
dren away from the holiness altars, and different ones have 
been locked up and whipped for coming to a Holy Ghost 
church. Wholly sanctified missionaries and evangelists are 
covered with reproach wherever they go, and it is not 
uncommon for them to get into jail. 

John tells ns in Revelation 7 :14 that he saw those who 
had come np out of great tribulation and had washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The 
accompanying poem tells something of the "way of Holi- 
ness f the way which Jesus trod and which all who would 
follow Him must tread. "If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow 



"There's a track of tribulation 

By the saints of ages trod, 
'Tis the highway of the ransomed, 

And it leadeth up to God. 
'Tis the way the Man of Sorrows 

Journeyed in His low estate, 
When He sought the lost and found them- 

Was there ever love so great? 

Lost, yea, lost with none to rescue; 

Arms too short, and strength too small. 
Till the Son of God came swiftly 

With a love that conquered all. 
Came to poverty and scorning. 

Came to mocking and distress; 
Came to final joy and triumph 

Over sin and Hell and death. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 247 

Oh, that hour, when touched by pity, 

He from off His throne came down, 
'Mid the shouts of untold millions 

Laid aside His kingly crown, 
Gladly too. His reputation. 

And in form of sinful man. 
Knowing well the path of suffering 

He redemption's work began. 

Oh, the scene that spread before Him, 

In this lost and ruined world; 
Where the hosts of Hell are gathered, 

And rebellion's flags unfurled. 
Like the mighty rushing torrent, 

Swift to Hell the millions speed. 
Sinking down, forever sinking. 

In the regions of the dead. 

Scenes of suffering and of sorrow. 

Crowd upon the rugged path 
Which the Savior meekly traveled, 

'Mid the storms of hellish wrath. 
Savior of the lost and ruined. 

By the lost and ruined spurned, 
And for love's most sure deliverance. 

On His head their hate returned. 

Scenes of Nazareth and Gethsemane, 

Pilate's hall and Herod's throne, 
Scenes where all with one consenting 

Did their blessed Lord disown. 



248 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Was there ever love so gracious? 

On this tribulation track. 
Patiently He journeyed onward, 

Nor did give one answer back. 

Lonely watch of dark Gethsemane, 

Prone upon the cold, damp ground. 
Burdened with the sins of many, 

With no friends to gather round, 
Forced the blood from all its channels 

Trickling down from every pore, 
Witness dire of pain and anguish 

Which for thee, the Savior bore. 

Tumult fills the hall of judgment, 

Silent stands the patient One. 
Crown of thorns, spittings, revilings. 

Shower upon God's only Son. 
"Upon us and our children, 

Be His blood," they fiercely cry ; 
"Crucify Him, crucify Him! 

On to Calvary ! He must die !" 

Up the track of tribulation 

Patiently the Lord doth go. 
Bearing on His back the burden. 

End of all His pain and woe ; 
Blessed cross! which Jesus carried 

'Mid that dark, tumultuous throng. 
Clasp I to my heart forever, 

This the theme of all my song. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLIJ. 249 

Crowning scene of love at Calvary, 

Eugged cross and cruel nails, 
E'en the thief who suffered with Him, 

Bitterly his Lord assails. 
Gushing blood — a fountain flowing. 

From His feet. His hands, His side, 
Moves no stony heart to pity; 

They His tears and love deride. 

Nature draws her veil of pity. 

O'er the sufferings of the Lord, 
Darkness dense, and then the earthquake, 

Sympathy for nature's God. 
Oh, the love immense, unfathomed, 

Even at His latest breath ! 
Beam His eyes with love and pity. 

And with love He conquered death. 

Look ye here ! ye scorned followers 

Of your persecuted Lord, 
Gaze upon those dying features; 

Listen to the wondrous words; 
Even now in keenest anguish. 

Greater, far, than mortal knew; 
"Father, merciful, forgive them. 

For they know not what they do." 

Thus the saints of all the ages. 

Took the track their Savior trod ; 
Glorying in the roughest pathways. 

Leading only to their God. 



250 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Tribulation worketh patience, 

Tribulation^s hottest fire 
Bringj the tribulation glory — 

'Mid its flames they mount the higher. 

They were'stoned, were sawn asunder, 

Tortured, tempted, mocked and scourged. 
To the deserts and the mountains. 

To the dens and caves were urged; 
Walked on thorns of persecution. 

Drank the bitterest cups of gall. 
Mixed with tribulation glory, 

Shining conqueror over all. 

See the footprints of our Savior, 

O'er His royal track divine; 
And apostles, fathers, martyrs, 

All have walked this heavenly line. 
Hail, all hail, reproach and sorrow. 

Partners of Christ's sufferings here; 
Partners of His final triumph. 

Through the grand eternal years. 

Know ye not this track of trial 

Is the only way to Heaven? 
They shall suffer persecution. 

Who to Christ their all have given. 
But the waves shall not o'erflow thee. 

And the^flames shall do no harm; 
He that to the end endureth, 

Safe shall be from all alarm. 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 251 

Who are these and whither came they ? 

These that stand before the throne ? 
Clothed in robes of spotless whiteness, 

Known to saints, to angels known; 
These are they who washed their garments 

In the Savior's precious blood; 
And through tribulation's fires, 

Now they stand before their God." 

VIVIAN A. DAKE. 
CHILD MARTYRS 

Some of the most touching stories we have known are 
those of the persecutions which children have suffered for 
Jesus and the gospel. Some thirty years ago a little Nor- 
wegian boy was drowned by some large, rough boys who 
wanted him to steal something for them, — ^which he would 
not do. He had sufficient opportunity to change his mind 
after he was placed in the water, but he did not for an in- 
stant waver in his determination to obey God, even at the 
cost of his life. His heroism has been made known to thou- 
sands of people and he certainly has a right to a place 
among the martyrs of the cross. 

One little girl came to a Sunday school, where she 
was taught the way of salvation, and she became converted. 
Shortly after her conversion, she died. One of the pas- 
tors of the church was called upon for the funeral service 
and upon making inquiry he was informed that she would 
get her Bible, read and pray alone, while the family, not 
caring to worship God, would tease, make fun of and 
mock her ; but she was true to Jesus and without doubt she 
is in Heaven today, thanking God for keeping her true. 



25^ MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

Another girl, older, who attended the same church, when 
she would prostrate herself upon the floor in her room to 
pray, her sisters would take pleasure in walking over her 
and trying to make her give up Christ; but God kept her. 

A general in the Indian service gives the following ac- 
count of the martyrdom of Willie Holt: 

"I had in my regiment a little bugler. His father and 
mother had died and he was left alone. He was not always 
treated kindly by the rough soldiers, yet he remained an 
out and out christian. He was trained by the christian 
mother and among the rough soldiers he showed that his 
conversion was a reality, by his beautiful life. 

One morning it was reported that the targets were 
thrown down during the night and the usual practice could 
not take place. The act was traced to the tent in which 
our little christian, Willie Holt, slept with perhaps a half 
dozen more. The whole lot were put under arrest, and it 
was proven by court-martial that one or more of the pris- 
oners were guilty of the offense. The general in command 
then turned to the prisoners and said, ^If one of you who 
slept in No. 4 last night will come forward and take the 
punishment, the rest will get off free ; but, if not, each 
one of you will receive ten strokes with the 'cat-o'-nine- 
tails.' Silence followed, — then Willie Holt stepped for- 
ward. 

His face was pale as death, and he said, 'I will take the 
punishment for the rest.' I turned to the prisoners and 
said, 'Will you let this delicate boy take punishment for 
you? He is guiltless, you know as well as I do.' I knew 
my military word must stand, and the boy knew it, too, as 
he said, *I am ready, sir.' 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 253 

It made me sick at heart to think of having the innocent 
boy lashed with the cruel whip. At the fourth blow, Jim 
Sykes, the black sheep of the regiment, seized the cruel 
whip and shouted out, '^General, stop it! and tie me up 
instead. He did not do it; I did/ and he flung his arms 
around the boy. 

Fainting and almost speechless, Willie lifted his eyes to 
the man's face and smiled, *No, Jim,' he whispered, ^you 
are safe now; the General's word will stand.' His head 
fell forward — he had fainted. 

The next day as I went into the hospital, I asked how 
the lad was getting on. ^He is sinking. General,' said the 
doctor, ^the shock of yesterday was too much. He is more 
fit for Heaven than earth.' The tears stood in his eyes. 

In the corner of the room I saw the lad propped up on 
some pillows, and kneeling by his side was Jim Sykes. I 
saw the drops of sweat standing on his brow and heard 
him say, *Why did you do it, Willie?' 

'Because I wanted to take it for you. I thought it 
might help you to understand a little bit why Christ died 
for you.' 

^What do you mean, Willie?' 

'I mean that He died for you because He loved you as 
I do, Jim; only Christ loved you much more. I only 
suffered for one of your sins, but Christ suffered punish- 
ment for all the sins you ever committed. The punish- 
ment was death, and, Jim, Christ suffered that death for 
you.' 

'I am one of the bad 'uns ; Christ never cared anything 
for me.' 

'But He died to save the bad ones. His words were, 
*I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.' 'Though 



254 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

your sins be as scarlet, they shall be like snow, though they 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool/ *Dear Jim/ 
he added, 'shall the Lord have died in vain for you? He 
has poured out His precious life blood for you. He is 
knocking at the door of your heart ; won't you let Him in ? 
Oh, you must,* and then we shall meet again in Heaven.' 

In a few minutes Willie fell back on his pillow. Half 
unconscious, I heard him say, 'Sing to me, mother, the 
'Gates of Pearl.^ He appeared as if listening to his 
mother's voice^ and I heard him saying, 'I shall be there, 
mother.' 

'Where do you mean, Willie ?' I asked. With a smile he 
answered, 'Why, in Heaven, General. The roll call has 
sounded for me: the gates are open; the price is paid.' 
Then softly, as if entering the gates of pearl, I heard him 
saying: 

'Just as I am, without one plea. 
But that Thy blood was shed for me. 
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, 
Lamb of God * * I come.' 

Gently he lifted his eyes to mine, saying, 'General, you 
will help Jim, won't you ? You will show him the way to 
Jesus, and the gates — of — pearl ?' 

Suddenly a light flashed in his dying eyes and with a 
radiant, happy cry he flung out his arms as if in welcome, 
saying, 'Jesus is calling me to his side. Mother — oh, 
mother ! I come to meet you, and I have found you wait- 
ing to receive me.' Slowly the light faded from the shin- 
ing eyes, and the brave spirit of the martyred boy, who 
died to save Jim Sykes, had gone to rest." 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 255 

The following is another instance of a young martyr, an 
African : 

"A poor little African negro only ten years of age, went 
to hear the preaching of a missionary and through his in- 
strumentality became a convert to the christian religion. 
His master, an inveterate enemy to missions, hearing of it, 
commanded him never to go again, and declared he would 
have him whipped if he did. The poor little boy in con- 
sequence was miserable. He could scarcely refrain from 
going, yet he knew his death was inevitable if he went. 
In his critical position he sought direction at the Throne 
of Grace, and felt convinced that it was still his duty to 
attend, but to be careful that he should not interfere with 
his master's business, and for the rest, to leave himself in 
the hands of God. He, therefore, went, and was sum- 
moned to his master's presence, and, after much violent 
and abusive language, received twenty-five lashes ; and then 
in a sarcastic tone of blasphemous ridicule, his master ex- 
claimed, *What can Jesus do for you now ?' 

'He enables me to bear patiently,' said the poor child. 

'Give him five and twenty more,' said the inhuman 
wretch. He was obeyed. 

'And what can Jesus Christ do for you now T asked the 
unfeeling monster. 

'He helps me to look forward to a future reward,' replied 
the sufferer. 

'Give him five and twenty more,' said the cruel tyrant, 
in a transport of rage. They complied, and, while he 
listened with savage delight to the extorted groans of this 
dying victim, he again demanded: 



256 MARTYRS IN ALL AGES. 

^hat can Jesus do for you now?' 
The youthful martyr, with the last effort of expiring 
nature, meekly replied: 

'He enables me to pray for you, massa/ and expired/' 

The story of a stowaway and his firm and courageous 
stand for the truth, we quote below, believing that God 
will make it a blessing. 

"On board an English steamer a ragged little boy, nine 
years of age, was discovered on the fourth day of the 
voyage out from Liverpool to New York, and carried before 
the first mate, whose duty it was to deal with such cases. 
When questioned as to his object in being stowed away, 
and who had brought him on board, the boy, who had a 
beautiful sunny face, that looked like the very mirror of 
truth, replied that his stepfather did it because he could 
not afford to keep him, nor pay his passage out to Hali- 
fax, where he had an aunt who was well off, and to whose 
house he was going. 

The mate did not believe the story, in spite of the win- 
ning face and truthful accents of the boy. He had seen 
too much of stowaways to be easily deceived by them, he 
said ; and it was his firm conviction that the boy had been 
brought on board and provided with food by the sailors. 

The little fellow was very roughly handled in conse- 
quence. Day by day he was questioned and requestioned. 
but always with the same result. He did not know a 
sailor on board, and his father alone had secreted him and 
given him the food which he ate. 

At last the mate, wearied by the boy's persistence in 
the same story, and perhaps a little anxious to inculpate 




A Young Martyr 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 357 

the sailors, seized him one day by the collar, and dragging 
him to the fore, told him that unless he told the truth, in 
ten minutes from that time he would hang from the yard- 
arm. He then made him sit down under it on the deck. 

All around him were the passengers and sailors of the 
midway watch, and in front of him stood the inexorable 
mate, with chronometer in hand, and the other officers of 
the ship by his side. It was a touching sight to see the 
pale, proud, scornful face of that noble boy; his head 
erect, his beautiful eyes, bright through tears that suf- 
fused them. When eight minutes had passed the mate 
told him he had but two minutes to live, and advised him 
to speak the truth and save his life; but he replied with 
the utmost simplicity and sincerity, by asking the mate if 
he might pray. The mate said nothing, but nodded his 
head, turned pale as a ghost, and shook with trembling 
like a reed in the wind. 

And then all eyes turned on him, the brave and noble 
fellow — this poor boy whom society owned not, and whose 
own stepfather could not care for — knelt with clasped 
hands, and eyes upturned to Heaven. There then occurred 
a scene as of Pentecost. Sobs broke from strong, hard 
hearts, as the mate sprang forward, clasped the boy to his 
bosom and kissed him and blessed him, and told him how 
sincerely he now believed his story, and how glad he was 
he had been brave enough to face death, and be willing to 
sacrifice his life for the truth of his word." 

The following story of a boy who would rather die than 
steal, we give as related by James B. Gough : 

"A friend of mine, seeking for objects of charitv, p:ot 
into a tenement house. It was vacant. He saw a ladder 
pushed through the ceiling. Thinking that perhaps some 



258 MARTYES IN ALL AGES. 

poor creature had crept up there, he climbed the ladder, 
drew himself up through the hole and found himself under 
the rafters. There was no light but that which was coming 
through a bull's-eye in the place of a tile. Soon he saw 
heaps of chips and shavings, and on them a boy about ten 
years old. 

'Boy, what are you doing here?' 

'Hush! Do not tell anyone, — please, sir. I'm hiding.' 

'What are you hiding from?' 

'Don't tell anybody, if you please, sir.' 

'Where is your mother?' 

'Mother is dead.' 

'Where is your father?' 

'Hush ! don't tell him ; but look here !' He turned him- 
self on his face, and through the rags of his jacket and 
shirt, my friend saw the boy's flesh was bruised and the 
skin broken. 

'Why, my boy, who beat you like that?' 

'Father did, sir.' 

'WTiat did your father beat you like that for ?' 

'Father got drunk, sir, and beat me 'cos I wouldn't 
steal.' 

'Did you ever steal?' 

'Yes, sir, I was a street thief once.' 

'And why don't you steal any more?' 

'Please, sir, I went to the mission school, and they told 
me there of God, and of Heaven, and of Jesus; and they 
taught me, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and I'll never steal again, 
if father kills me for it: but please, sir, do not tell him.^ 



A PERSECUTED PEOPLE. 259 

*My boy, you must not stay here; you will die. Now, 
you wait patiently here a little time. I am going away to 
see a lady and we will get a better place for you than 
this.' 

^Thank you, sir, but, please sir, would you like to hear 
me sing a little hymn?' 

Battered, bruised, forlorn, friendless, motherless, hiding 
away from an infuriated father, he had a little hymn to 
sing. 

'Yes, I will hear you sing your little hymn.' 

He raised himself upon his elbow and then sang: 



'Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. 
Look upon a little child; 

Suffer me to come to Thee. 
Fain would I to Thee be brought. 
Gracious Lord, forbid it not; 
In the kingdom of Thy grace 
Give a little child a place.' 



'That's the little hymn, sir. Good-by.' 

The gentleman went away and came back again in less 
■than two hours, and climbed the ladder. There were the 
chips, and there was the little boy with one hand by his 
side, and the other tucked in his bosom underneath the 
ragged little shirt — dead." 



260 :mabtyrs in all ages. 



THE REDEEMED IN HEAVEN 

"Lo ! round the throne, a glorious band. 
The saints in countless myriads stand; 
Of every tongue redeemed to God, 
Arrayed in garments washed in blood; 
Arrayed in garments washed in blood. 

Through tribulation great they came; 
They bore tlife cross, despised the shame; 
But now, from all their labors rest. 
In God's eternal glory blest ; 
In God's eternal glory blest. 

They see the Savior face to face; 
They sing the triumph of His grace; 
And day and night, with ceaseless praise. 
To Him their loud hosannas raise; 
To Him their loud hosannas raise. 

may we tread the sacred road 
That holy saints and martyrs trod; 
Wage to the end the glorious strife, 
And win, like them, a crown of life! 
And win, like them, a crown of life V 

From Burning Bush SongB* 



SEP 23 1907 



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